“Snowmageddon”

“For those keeping score, this upside-down winter in the U.S. capital region has broken the most unlikely of records – buckled under the latest wallop they call Snowmageddon, the area now has received five times more snow that balmy southern Ontario. And here below the Mason-Dixon Line, where an occasional dusting is the norm, this fresh two-footer comes more problem-fraught than Snowpocalypse, the pre-Christmas dump of comparable depth. It is heavier, wetter, stickier. As evidenced by the 35-metre pine that rests at a sick angle on the roof of the Toronto Star’s home on the city’s edge. The tree snapped like a toothpick midway through the storm, tearing down the electrical lines and leaving this household dark – and along with an estimated 200,000 people, reliant on battery and candle power. As night fell Saturday, a Bethesda supermarket running on backup generators catered to patrons arriving by ski and snowshoe. Others were out on toboggans and snowboards, making the most of the uncommon blast on streets usually gridlocked with traffic.”