D.C. bull’s-eye of possible storm

WASHINGTON – The forecast for a historic blizzard has been there for days, looming over the nation’s capital like the UFO from “Independence Day.” Projected snowfall totals have ticked steadily upward, to the point where the National Weather Service says more than 2 feet of snow could land on Washington.

States of emergency have been declared in five states and the District of Columbia. Schools and government offices are being closed. Thousands of flights have been canceled. Food and supplies are disappearing from stores. College basketball games and concerts will have to wait.

“It’s going to be dangerous out there,” said Tonya Woods, 42, a Washington Metro station manager who lives in Clinton, Maryland. “I say they should shut things down.”

Late Thursday, she got her wish. The federal government announced its offices would be closing at noon Friday. The capital’s subway system announced earlier in the day it will shut down entirely Friday night and remain closed through Sunday for the sake of employee and rider safety.

The snowfall could easily cause more than $1 billion in damage, weather service director Louis Uccellini said.

Washington looks like the bull’s-eye of the blizzard, and New York City is just inside the slow-moving storm’s sharp northern edge, Uccellini said.

Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Paul Kocin, who with Uccellini wrote a two-volume textbook on northeast snowstorms, estimated more than 2 feet for Washington, a foot to 18 inches for Philadelphia and 8 inches to a foot in New York.

That could put this snowstorm near the top 10 to hit the East, Kocin said.

At a supermarket in Baltimore, Sharon Brewington stocked her cart with ready-to-eat snacks, bread, milk and cold cuts. In 2010, she and her daughter were stuck at home with nothing but noodles and water.

“I’m not going to make that mistake again,” Brewington said.

On Thursday, icy conditions caused accidents that killed two drivers in North Carolina and one in Tennessee. A truck with a snowplow killed a pedestrian while snow fell in Maryland.

States of emergency were declared in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and parts of other states, where road crews were out in force Thursday.

One major event in Washington was still on: the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion rally that’s usually one of the larger events on the National Mall. It will be held Friday, the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

The U.S. Capitol Police said sledding on Capitol Hill – which recently became legal after an act of Congress – would be welcome for the first time in decades.