LEESBURG, Va. — Traffic crews have been monitoring and closing roads that have been rendered impassible by downed trees, blown traffic barrels and garbage cans whipped into the street by the strong winds.
“Trees falling on power lines and telephone lines, garbage cans, smaller ground-mounted signs, and even overhead signs are susceptible,” said Ellen Kamilakis of Virginia Department of Transportation.
Road crews, utilities and private citizens have all done their part to keep traffic flowing.
“Our primary goal is to keep everything moving,” Kamilakis said.
In some cases the road blockage can be handled quickly.
“Depending on the size of the tree, it may be something a VDOT crew of two with a dump truck and a couple of chainsaws can haul it away,” Kamilakis said. “But if it’s a much larger tree, you need heavy equipment, and that’s the transport time to get those there.”
Some traffic can usually resume before the entire tree is cut and carted away.
“If we can get a lane open on a road and do a flagging operation, the intent is to keep traffic moving as much as we can,” she said.
The damage from downed trees isn’t just limited to blocked roadways.
In Leesburg, Virginia, an old tree was knocked down by the wind at the intersection of Queen Street Northeast and Edwards Ferry Road. That led to crews from Dominion Energy working to replace the power while a hazardous materials contractor had to clean up oil from the fallen generator.
Crew for @DomEnergyVA to the rescue on Edwards Ferry Rd. Wind blew tree into power pole. Generator on pole spews oil. @VaDOT has small stretch of Edwards Ferry closed. And, it’s snowing. #staysafe pic.twitter.com/syql6be1Q0
— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) March 2, 2018
By midmorning, two wooden replacement poles arrived and were installed, as the wind continued to rock nearby cars.
Even good Samaritans were tested by Mother Nature.
No good deed goes unpunished. Woman gets out of car to move blown garbage pail out of road. Traffic stops behind her. Drags pail 100 feet away. Walks back to car, starts driving. Pail blows back in front of her. She has to stop and move pail again. @WTOPtraffic pic.twitter.com/qJJHRCNOz7
— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) March 2, 2018
One woman who stopped traffic to move a blown a garbage pail out of the road started driving only to have the same pail blown right back in front of her car in the street.
