"Whiteout" conditions prompted Montgomery County, the State Highway Administration and Pepco to pull their crews off the roads as a winter storm intensified this morning.
The county suspended plowing and snow removal operations around 9:30 a.m. today, said county spokeswoman Bonnie Ayers.
"They were doing the primary roads when [they were] called off," Ayers wrote in an e-mail, referring to major non-state roads such as Shady Grove Road bordering Gaithersburg and Rockville and Arlington Road in Bethesda.
Plowing would resume once conditions improved, Ayers said. As with the Feb. 5-6 storm, about 900 pieces of equipment such as snow plows were clearing roads. Liquid salt brine had been used on roads prior to the storm to prevent ice from bonding to road surfaces, and enough salt is available to distribute "some to some municipalities," said Ayers.
"The weather conditions are some of the worst we've seen in years," said SHA Administrator Neil J. Pedersen in a statement. "You are taking your life into your own hands and jeopardizing others' lives if you choose to go out."
Pepco has suspended power restoration crews until the blizzard and storm conditions subside, according to a statement on Pepco's Web site. As of this morning, about 5,100 customers in the county were without power from the weekend storm, according to county reports. The utility company anticipates additional outages.
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