Drivers urged to stay off roads as winter storm cleanup continues across DMV
Drivers urged to stay off roads as cleanup continues across DMV
Efforts to clear the roads in Northern Virginia are ongoing tonight. VDOT is asking drivers to stay off the roads tonight and as long as they can tomorrow morning to aid in the cleanup. FOX 5's David Kaplan has more.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - In Maryland, conditions are improving, but a lot of work still needs to be done.
But as it gets later and colder, ice is expected to make conditions dangerous for drivers.
What they're saying:
Drivers across the DMV are facing difficult conditions..
"It’s not safe at all. You have to be worried about like cars coming in," said Samuel Mosquera.
Over at Rayburn Road and Bradley Boulevard some side streets had yet to be touched at all.
"Luckily, our main street is fine, but like, fingers crossed that this gets plowed soon," said Lakhshmi Nagireddy, whose street hasn’t been plowed yet. "And when it comes to getting schools back open, this is going to be part of the problem. I’m standing at the intersection of bradmoor and ewing, and as you can see, things look pretty good. Plows have come through here. We’ve watched cars drive by. However, flip around this direction. Just one block down in that direction, you’ve got north Bethesda middle school, and as you can see here, the snow hasn’t been touched."
Dig deeper:
Across Maryland, as of about 6 p.m. on Monday, state police said they’d received nearly 2,000 calls for service and responded to 162 crashes during the storm.
"One thing that we are seeing though is our crews having to respond to people who are on the roads and getting stranded who should not have been on the roads in the first place," Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.
It led to more calls – even a day later – for people to just stay home.
Plows are still making the rounds in Maryland, but the roads remain rough and officials continue to encourage anyone who can to stay off of the roads.
What's next:
There is the risk for more snowfall in the D.C. region and Northeast this weekend.
The truth is we are still in that forecast range where we have to watch model trends, to see if the storm could hug the coastline or if it will get forced out.
READ MORE: More snow? Another round of winter weather could hit the DMV this weekend
Given the pattern, we should have a reasonable idea by Wednesday night or Thursday morning if we are in for another winter wallop, or a near miss.
If it does happen to hug the coastline, the potential is there for an even more significant snowfall than the one we just went through this past weekend.