WASHINGTON – No snow is in the forecast Thursday, and there was only a dusting and rain across much of the Washington area Wednesday.
In anticipation of what some thought would be a significant snow event, federal workers were able to take unscheduled leave or telework from home Wednesday. The Office of Personnel Management made the announcement shortly after 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
But by the time it was over, only some areas to the north and west of D.C. had a dusting of flakes on grassy areas. Most of the roads remained fairly clear of ice and snow.
That department caught some serious flak almost exactly a year ago after a dismissal flooded already snowy and icy roads with outbound federal workers. Some spent 14 hours trying to navigate the clogged arteries trying to get home. Revisit the nightmare commute here.
OPM Director John Berry defended his position on WTOP a few days later, saying a “perfect storm” of the speed with which the storm hit and “human nature” caused the gridlock.
“Many employees could have left earlier, but they just felt that they had time,” he said in January 2011 of the clear conditions earlier in the day. “When they saw the snow start, they said ‘I gotta get out of here’ and they all hit the road at the same time.”
The “commute from hell” spurred a heated debate over how to correctly dismiss a city’s worth of commuters for inclement weather.
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