Snowcation causes trouble for many

Written By:
BP Staff Writer

Staff Writer

Published:
Feb. 25 2010

"Snowmageddon,"or "Snowverkill," as some call it has pounded the region all winter with a record of 55.6 inches of snow. It has forced school closures and caused road crews and voluntary services to work 24 hours a day for almost a week. It also cost almost 60 million dollars for the job to get done.

This was a difficult time for a majority of Montgomery County. The storms caused more than 200,000 power outages throughout the County for several days. Also about 6,000 flights were canceled Wednesday, stranding thousands of passengers at airports. Lastly, it sent millions of people working tirelessly for hours and days to shovel sidewalks and driveways.

Getting rid of the snow was a great challenge for Montgomery County. The environmental road service in Maryland along with many private volunteer services worked tirelessly to plow road ways down to pavement starting with major roads and highways and finishing with neighborhood streets. The record breaking snowfall depleted the salt storage factory making five ships travel from New Mexico to deliver salt for the roads.

"I was snowed in for almost a week because the trucks could not plow our roads. My parents could not go to work and I was stuck at home playing video games all day," sophomore Ram Natarajan said.

Electronics also struggled as a result of the storm, and many people lost power forcing them to be in freezing temperatures in their homes.

"I hated losing power last week because I could not get good sleep without the heat and the food was not good at all," junior Julio Cruz said.

Many people were not as disappointed with the snow as others. Kids and private contractors took advantage of it and went door to door making hundreds dollars shoveling driveways.

"I shoveled all of last week and made a total of $1500," senior Alex Abramson said.

Regardless of someone’s experiences while out of school, all Springbrook staff and students suffered the same fate upon return, attempting to navigate unplowed streets and unshovelled sidewalks which led to an even later start than scheduled.

Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) is still deciding how and if the missed snow days will be made up. In Maryland, it is customary for schools to be in session for 180 days each year. Schools are allowed up to four snow days and days that schools are closed after the allotted days are included in the Contingency plan. The MCPS Contingency plan includes specific actions that should be done when there are more than nine snow days. Because MCPS has used nine snow days; one possibility is for the school year to could possibly be extended to June 23.

"The snow was not worth it and I’m upset I may have to come in extra," junior Marilin Barillas said.

Though adding extra days at the end of the year is the most common way of handling a situation like this, because of the history making snow, there are several other proposals being discussed. Maryland Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick told The Washington Post that she thought school systems should be allowed to dip below the 180-day minimum, and planned to suggest this to the Maryland State Board of Education.

Another proposal is to extend the school day by adding minutes on to each period.

Some have heard that Spring Break will be cut short, which did happen in 2003 when the Maryland State Board of Education voted to take away Easter Monday, a Professional day and extended school to June 20. It is a possibility for this year.

"I’m a senior so I do not care if they add days at the end of the year, as long as they don’t take away Spring Break," senior Raymond Vernet said.