This post was written by Hatchet Reporter Alex Markoff
D.C. residents and visitors alike enjoyed a quick respite Tuesday between parts one and two of this week’s monster snowfall.
As crews attempt to dig the region out of the slush, blizzard conditions continue to make travel and clean-up a near impossibility across the city Wednesday. Tuesday, however, residents were able to get around a bit easier.
On U Street, Lamar Peterson found time for a quick haircut before the arrival of more inclement weather.
“I plan on being home,” he said in regard to Wednesday. “I don’t plan on going out.”
Peterson, along with Mary Duncan, stood a block away from the iconic and usually crowded Ben’s Chili Bowl. Tuesday, no line stemmed from the front door, likely due to limited Metro service and still-icy roads.
“I’ll probably be home too,” Duncan added as a series of cars tried to navigate the frozen street next to her. “I’ll probably catch up on some homework. It’s just really aggravating only because everything is closed. Life has stopped abruptly,” she said.
In Chinatown, Liz Jarvis didn’t mind the change of pace.
“It’s been really nice because my office works off the federal government schedule so I haven’t had to go to work for the past two days,” she said.
Jarvis’ friend, Candace Brown, noted that people looking to do some last minute stocking-up on food at this point were most likely out of luck.
“We did all of our shopping last week,” she said. Brown said she saw “nothing on the shelves” of local stores.
Also enjoying the government closures were Matthew Robertson, Ashley Cooper, and Claire Mehrtens, students and congressional interns from Australia, who used the day off to walk around Gallery Place. In that neighborhood, crews were still shoveling and plowing as pedestrians patiently waited to access the narrow parts of the sidewalk that were free of snow and ice.
“It’s incredible! We get a bit of rain and some hail in Melbourne and we get excited about that. After a night at the pub we made snowmen and jumped in the snow, covered ourselves, and made each other eat snow,” Robertson said.
“[The snow] was so deep. We could just dive in. It’s still a novelty being able to come into the city and see all the snow piled up on the streets,” Mehrtens added.
