Snow Day Survival Guide

Shazam! Guess all the fuss was justified. Get more information on forecasts, closings, important phone numbers, road conditions… and fun stuff like pictures and sledding.

December 19, 2009; 9:04 AM • by Valerie Catrow

Shazam! Guess all the fuss was justified.

NBC12’s Andrew Freiden is predicting that when it’s all said and done (including more sleet and snow today!) the Eastern part of town will have accumulated 6 to 12 inches of the white stuff, and the Western metro area will have gotten 12 to 18 inches!

For some parts of the country this is not very interesting, but here in Richmond we call that A Big Deal.

A few points worth noting…

Serious stuff

VDOT is asking that people just stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary. Crews are working hard across the state, but obviously this is going to take a while. If you do go out and get stranded, don’t be a hero. Call 911 for help.
Hospitals are still open but are need of volunteers with 4-wheel drive vehicles to help their staff get to work. Call 804-320-3911 for CJW, 804-594-SNOW for St. Francis, 804-287-SNOW for St. Mary’s, and 804-764-SNOW for RCH and Memorial.
Power outages are kind of inevitable with this stuff (as you can see here). If your lights go out, call 1-888-667-3000.
Clearly there are going to be some closings around town for a while. Check out our local news stations’ websites for more info: NBC12, WRIC-TV8, and WTVR.

Fun stuff

I’d say there’s more than enough snow for sledding. Here’s that RichmondWiki list of great spots around town that we posted yesterday.
Pictures! We sure you’ve either got some great shots from last or you’ll get some great ones today. Send them to the RVANews Flickr group and we’ll put together a nice Snow Day Montage. Here are some lovely pics and videos already floating around the Internets:

As the editor of RVANews, Valerie Catrow spends most of her time wrangling people over email and muttering to herself about the content calendar. She also contributes to our parenting column while maintaining her own blog, Made in Richmond. It should be noted that she loves tots, both the potato and child varieties.