Mid-Atlantic shuts down ahead of warnings of blizzard conditions

February 6, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Life in the nation’s capital ground to a halt Friday as steady snow fell, the beginning of a storm that forecasters said could be the biggest for the city in modern history.

A record 21‚Ñ2 feet or more was predicted for Washington, where snow was falling heavily by evening, and forecasters warned that blizzard conditions were on the way. Big amounts of snow were expected elsewhere throughout the Mid-Atlantic, and authorities already blamed the storm for hundreds of accidents and the deaths of father-son Samaritans in Virginia.

A few thousand people in West Virginia lost electricity because of the storm, and more outages were expected. A hospital fire in D.C. sent about three dozen patients scurrying from their rooms to safety in a basement. The blaze started when a snowplow truck caught fire near the building, but no injuries were reported.

The region’s second snowstorm in less than two months could be “extremely dangerous,” the National Weather Service said. Heavy, wet snow and strong winds threatened to clog roads and paralyze the region’s transportation and retail.

Airlines canceled flights, schools closed, and the federal government sent workers home, where they could be stuck for several days in a region ill-equipped to deal with so much snow. Some area hospitals asked people with four- wheel-drive vehicles to volunteer to pick up doctors and nurses to take them to work.

The National Zoo closed early, and the Smithsonian museums were to close today. U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser said the Lincoln Memorial and other monuments in Washington would remain open as long as conditions allowed.

Gilles Conti scrambled in vain to find a way to get to Los Angeles from Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington, where all flights through this afternoon were canceled.

“I’m just going to wait. I mean, what can I do?” he said. “I’m going to go back to the hotel I was in, and I guess I’m going to stay there.”

Amtrak stopped most trains heading south from Washington.

Before the heavy snow started falling, shoppers jammed aisles and emptied stores of milk, bread and shovels.

There were 20 to 30 people waiting when a Trader Joe’s in Falls Church, Va., opened at 8 a.m.

Many shoppers found they were too late.

At a Safeway in Hanover, Md., there wasn’t a single egg in the store, and only a few bottles of milk remained.

“I’ve come from two other places that are out of milk and sour cream,” said Cheryl Conner, 50, of Hanover. “This one’s out of sour cream, too; it’s crazy.”

As heavy snow fell at an Indianapolis airport, Colts fans arrived early hoping they could still catch flights to Miami, where the Super Bowl was to be held. Most direct flights were on time, but travelers passing through Philadelphia and Washington had to make other arrangements.

In western Virginia, a tractor-trailer struck and killed a father and son who had stopped to help another driver who had wrecked in snow on Interstate 81, Virginia State Police said. William Edward Smith Jr., 25, of Mooresburg, Tenn., and 54-year-old William Edward Smith Sr. of Sylva, N.C., died at the scene, authorities said.