12:23AM EDT October 30. 2012 - WASHINGTON -- For millions of people, the federal city stood still.
Grand marble buildings normally abuzz with federal workers and monuments usually overrun with jostling tourists loomed dark and quiet Monday. Federal workers could telecommute or take the day off. The federal government will remain closed Tuesday.
The venerable Smithsonian museums, known for closing only on Christmas Day, shut their doors to Sandy.
The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday morning but closed early. Arguments scheduled for Tuesday were moved to Thursday, the first time in recent memory an argument had been postponed because of weather, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.
Even Metro, the heart of the region's transportation system, idled its trains and buses, setting in motion a scramble for some of the 1.2 million people who depend on trains and buses to get to work. Metro said late Monday that it stay closed Tuesday morning.
Grocery clerk Michele Coles, 42, woke up before dawn to carpool with five of her co-workers to a supermarket on the other side of town.
"Most of us take Metro. We have no idea when we're closing and no idea how we'll get back home," Coles said. "It's going to be one of those days."
At the Smithsonian, national treasures were in their climate-controlled cases, safe from the wind and rain, spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said. Closing the museums and the National Zoo is "very unusual," she said. The last time the Smithsonian closed for weather was in a big snowstorm in 2010.
"There is a state of emergency declared in the District and there is no public transportation," she said. "It would be very hard for visitors to tour around the Mall."
At the National Aquarium in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, 16,000 creatures are under climate-controlled lockdown as animal technicians keep watch. Hurricane Isabel in 2003 swept 18 inches of water into the building's lobby. The aquarium says it's ready to guard against any loss of life, human or otherwise.
The iconic Washington National Cathedral closed Monday to await the storm. Last year's earthquake followed by Hurricane Irene hit the church hard, destabilizing the four grand pinnacles. Although the pinnacles, visible from all over the city, remain swathed in scaffolding, the cathedral's head stonemason inspected the structure Monday and assured church leaders that it could withstand the storm, communications director Richard Weinberg said.
"The wiring systems have battened things down. There shouldn't be any damage from Sandy," he said.
Across the Potomac River in flood-prone areas of Alexandria, Va., police barricaded portions of some streets closest to the swollen river.
Increasing wind and driving rain were creating whitecaps from the Old Town marina across to National Harbor in Maryland.
The area's fleet of river taxis and tour boats stopped running Sunday night, and officials did't expect to resume operations until Wednesday at the earliest.
Willem Polak, owner of the Potomac Riverboat Co., said crews that serve nine boats in the company's fleet would ride out the storm on the Cherry Blossom, a paddle-wheel tourist boat docked in Old Town Alexandria, to keep watch on the other vessels. n
While there is concern for flooding and wind damage, Polak said the Potomac could become increasingly treacherous after the storm when the fast-moving waters carry storm debris -- fallen trees and other materials -- from the harder-hit areas to the north.
"We could be dealing with what comes down the river for some time after this is over,'' he said.
Along low-lying parts of Old Town, restaurants and shops were shuttered. Sandbags were piled at doors and window-wells.
The usually busy Starbucks coffee house at King and Union streets was dark at midmorning, its front-door fortified like a sandbag-laden machine-gun nest.
Nearby, a home-made sign hung in the window of a clothing store seemed to express the community's feelings for the approaching storm.
"Sandy, Sandy go away. Come again NO other day.''
Others in the region made the best of a sudden bloc of free time.
For a busy klatch of women at an apartment building in northwest Washington who periodically gather for conversation, dinner and wine, Hurricane Sandy and the sudden cessation of social events offered the perfect occasion for a cozy party, said Lorna Aldrich, 71.
"We're getting full participation, which is rare," Aldrich said. One woman, scheduled to travel, found her flight canceled. The others, whose evenings are often filled with meetings and events around town, will be stuck in the building.
Aldrich, who volunteered to do the cooking, arrived at her local supermarket at 9 a.m. to look for provisions. She expected bare shelves. "We're just going to eat whatever is left in Giant," Aldrich said.
Instead, she found a fully stocked produce section, bins overflowing with bananas and strawberries, and an open butcher shop. She settled on a pot roast, figuring the grim weather called for comfort food.
She said she wasn't worried that Hurricane Sandy would ultimately wreak havoc on her party plans.
"We've never lost power," Aldrich said. "I've been here since 1999, and we've never lost power."
Contributing: Natalie DiBlasio, Kevin Johnson, Richard Wolf and Gregg Zoroya
Source: http://www.news.theusalinks.com/2012/10/30/in-a-rare-break-washington-shuts-down-for-sandy/
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