State-Journal.com - Nation's capital snowed in: Frankfort natives describe winter storm

Photo By submittalRebecca Mitchell McNaull and her children Caleb, 8, and Eliza, 4, stand in the blinding snow that dumped more than 30 inches on their Vienna, Virginia home on Saturday.

Frankfort natives Woo Sweeney and Rebecca McNaull are living through the powerful winter forces that are dumping several feet of snow in and around the nation’s capitol.

Sweeney who has lived for 14 years in Edgewood, Maryland, a suburb of Annapolis, said early Saturday because of the drifts brought on by 30 mile per hour winds she was unable to open her front door.

“A road crew came through here early Saturday and I gave them hot coffee and fresh homemade cranberry muffins, and boy, did I get a clean driveway,” Sweeney said.

However, her husband Dick said he had just come in from scraping the driveway again. “It’s falling about an inch an hour.”

Sweeney said they expect at least 30 inches before the snowfall stops. But she said the next warning is for flooding when the melt off begins this week.

According to Sweeney, even the birds are having trouble managing the high winds. “We have filled our bird feeders, and it is a riot watching them trying to hold on to eat.”

McNaull, Sweeny’s daughter, lives in Vienna, Virginia, about 20 miles outside Washington, D.C. McNaull, her children Caleb, 8, Eliza, 4, along with husband Justin, who is state relations director for the national Triple A, woke up to 23 inches around their house. An additional nine inches was expected Saturday by nightfall.

“Right now the snow is up past Eliza’s waist,” said McNaull of her 38-inch daughter. “She can’t walk through our yard, but it hasn’t stopped us from shoveling a path and playing in the snow.”

McNaull has lived in Vienna for more than seven years and said this is the biggest snowfall she has seen there.

“We were told by local officials we needed to be able to shelter in place for at least three days.”

McNaull said she made her grocery run Thursday and found bare shelves when it came to most staples. “But I was able to get the things I needed including milk.”

Early Saturday morning, McNaull said a neighbor with four-wheel drive and a plow attached to the front had become stuck sideways on their street. “But I did see another four-wheel SUV make it through around noon.”

Kentucky native Sarah Wells of Beaver Dam also lives in Vienna. Her power went out about 1 p.m. Saturday when a neighbor’s tree fell over power lines and left the tall pine across part of their driveway. Wells told the State Journal that approximately 100,000 people are without power in Vienna.

“I’m sure it will be some time before anything is done about it.”

Wells, who is barely 5-feet tall, said the snow was expected to stop later in the day, but not without leaving almost three feet of the white powder.

Wells also made a grocery run on Thursday spending about $400. “I had nothing in the house and I knew with Jim (her husband) and Jamie, 20 (her son) stuck here they had better have food to eat. But I guess that is a moot point now, with nothing to cook on. Looks like it is sandwiches.”

Wells said they were unable to get out and none of their friends were able to get to them so until that can happen they will weather out the storm at their home.

7.	Posted by Jerry February 8, 2010
	We don't have to look back that far, to see we have strange winters, the blizzard of January 1994 is a well-known winter storm, which hit Kentucky and shut down transportation and commerce within parts of the state for several days; however, there is no storm report for this blizzard found in Storm Data. An intense winter storm brought copious amounts of snowfall to the region Monday the 17th, with all of Kentucky and southern Indiana receiving several inches of snow. A band of particularly heavy snow set up from Shelbyville through Cynthiana That included we Frankrort residence, where nearly two feet fell. At Louisville a single-day snowfall record of more than 15 inches was set. For those that remember, Behind the storm came an intensely cold air mass dumped south out of Canada, sending temperatures plunging well below zero by Wednesday the 19th. Not only did Louisville record an all-time low of -22 degrees, but Shelbyville set a new record low temperature for the entire state of Kentucky with a reading of -37! Lexington came within one degree of their all-time record low. So we all have our memories, "94" was the worst, I was in the National Guard and I worked that storm, Buy far the worst, ever. The laughable part of the whole thing, is they only if anyone remembers, called for a light dusting. Go figure. LOL