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December 23, 2009

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Our Man in America: Snowbound Washington is beautiful without cars

By Wan Lixin | December 23, 2009, Wednesday | Print Edition

WE have just witnessed a historic snowstorm in Washington, DC.
It started exactly at 9pm Friday evening, and when it stopped 24 hours later, the accumulation of snow in most of the area approached 20 inches.
I first sensed something unusual when I saw from our apartment window at about 4pm Saturday two persons struggling with luggage and plodding through the elevated Jefferson Davis Highway. It could only mean they had abandoned their cars.
I went out to conduct a reality check.
There were few motor vehicles around, making it very safe to cross the roads, and except for the strong wind gusts and constant sirens from fire engines, it was very quiet on the roads.
The true gravity of the situation sank in half an hour later when I learned that one member of our group who had gone to see a performance near Alexandria, Virginia, had to put up in a Holiday Inn for the night. That was after losing all hope of returning home by metro, taxi, bus, or walking (normally it is about two hours' walk).
Another group of five had gone to see a 3D movie "Avatar" in Chinatown in DC, little knowing that their journey home would be fraught with delays and become an ordeal.
The metro authority decided to stop running trains to above-ground stations at about 1pm Saturday, and trains running between underground stations had become very irregular.
After being stranded in a station for hours, they faced the choice of walking through the Arlington Cemetery, in gathering darkness, to get to another station still in operation, or checking into a hotel. The local coordinator for our training program came to their rescue, and drove them home in a four-wheel drive vehicle.
More fortunate were those of the group who did not venture far outside, but were seen lingering in front of the closed doors of nearby Macy's, wondering why the store that promised to remain open till midnight was closed in the afternoon.

The snow dealt a heavy blow to retailers, for the last weekend before the Christmas is traditionally known for the bustle.
Toward the evening I learned we were witnessing a historic event: the greatest December snowfall for DC in 70 years, with an accumulation in a 24-hour period that the region typically gets in an entire winter.
Nearly all flights at Ronald Reagan National Airport, Dulles International Airport, and Baltimore-Washington airports had been canceled Saturday.
On reflection, I guess American dependence on machines probably contributed to the mess after the heavy snow.In an emergency like this the most dependable resources for clearing up the snow are the human hands.
This simple truth has been proved time and again during the recent natural disasters in China, one of the most recent being the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province last year.
Mass participation is very important. In many Chinese cities for instance, the cleaning up of the snow in key public areas is usually assigned to specific units or homes closest to the scene, which proves to be quite efficient.
But by Tuesday in this historic snowfall in DC, although snow on primary roads had been cleared up, many secondary and neighborhood roads remained inaccessible, because it might take more time for the limited number of snowplows to reach them.
Where are the numerous powerful human hands? In such a crisis, local authorities should urge neighbors to come out, rather than plead with them to stay home.
Emphasis should also be placed on public transport. Ideally, in a crisis like this, instead of suspending mass transit, local authority should make every effort to ensure normal, or above-normal, operation of metro and buses.
As public transport is clearly not a real priority in this car-dependent nation, a small group of metro-reliant Chinese are among the hardest-hit in this sudden suspension of metro services.
But a Washington buried in snow is beautiful, when many roads are virtually empty of cars.
The Sunday after the heavy snow, the outside was so quiet that I woke up long before my usual hours of getting up.
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