Both the county and federal government gave employees the option to stay home Friday, as ice caked onto everything.
The county said most nonessential employees could use unscheduled annual leave, paid time off, leave without pay or comp time without prior supervisory approval. County programs and activities, as well as classes in public schools, also were cancelled for the rest of the day.
However, day-care programs in school buildings stayed open as scheduled. Libraries, rec centers and health clinics also remained open.
On the federal scene, employees who couldn’t get to work hollered at their supervisors for unscheduled leave. Emergency employees were still expected to show on time.
The county’s Ride On bus service operated on its regular weekday schedule. But the metropolitan transit authority told its passengers straight up: Metro buses would operate as road conditions dictated. Riders were told to expect possible detours and delays due to road conditions. Metro trains operated on a regular weekday schedule.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the entire DC area until 10:00 p.m. that evening. Translation: A quarter-inch of ice on anything and everything made travel absolute hell.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Franz Josef Hidin.
Updated Feb 25, 2008, at 9:10 a.m.
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Boxed wines and rosés are back in vogue. Just ask The Penguin's sommeliers.
Like the new look of the site, but it sure seems inefficient to me. Look at all that white space over on the left! Just for 3 giant images to your other accounts at the very top? You could at least wrap the text around those images with a div tag, to utilize some of the white space…. just a suggestion. other than that, love the blog and am a regular visitor.
back on topic… congrats to all you kids who got off school. Sitting in my fed gov’t job down here in DC, where 10 of the 12 people in my branch have taken leave… gonna be a nice, quiet day!
Editor’s note: Thanks for your suggestion, Skywalker. Actually, I have plans for the white space that I haven’t implemented just yet. (Can you say “in-ground pool”?) — JD (Feb 22, 2008)
Here’s a tale that’ll get a good laugh out of you, courtesy of Sligo at Silver Spring, Singular:
“Could this be the end of our hero?” — Silver Spring, Singular
Related news footage — ABC-7 News