I'll just echo everything you said, JK. I'm in Sterling, VA. Our back deck was piled up about three feet due to the high winds that were going most of Saturday. I had two feet on the driveway, and haven't shoveled most of it. We fortunately didn't lose our power either. It's funny, we lost power for about 3 hours a few weeks ago when there was no weather event, but this storm and Sandy never knocked it out once. Go figure.

But yes, this area is simply not prepared for this kind of stuff, and doesn't really have a need to be. I remember a time in high school when they cancelled snow due to some early morning flurries, and by 11am I was walking outside in shorts and short sleeves on completely dry ground. We just don't see much snow here.

The DC area does get fairly frequent freezing rain storms, though. I think it was like four years ago that people had 9 hour commutes home, and people had to abandon their cars on the sides of highways due to the horrible ice conditions on the roads. Tons of accidents that time.

My wife and I were living in a condo during Snowmageddon and we were lucky to have power during the whole thing. We were stuck inside for about a week, which I had no problem with because I finally got my wife to watch the entire run of Buffy This time there was no time for binge watching. Not with a demanding toddler to look after!