Delgaudio takes on 'concrete snow'

Thank you for those reports. I am sure your many reports to me made a critical difference in hundreds of lives.

This morning I drove the district again and found a dozen unplowed streets or courts and reported them.

The curb lanes and sidewalks are untouched for the most part and I think tomorrows predicted 50 degree warm weather will help with breaking the ice up. Today is sunny so that should help also. "Snow" covers roadways and sidewalks and that is not good.

Most of Sterling has dug out to the street one lane for walking or for their cars to come and go.

In order for children walking to school and waiting for buses, it may be necessary for the schools to be closed another day. In light of this concrete snow (a term that I introduced and the news media is now using to describe this stuff) it is entirely possible school could be closed again. I will let you know when I know.

There is a lot of other safety issues, lower visability due to high concrete snow piles and sliding and bumping and lack of lanes all over, that require me to warn everybody again to watch out on the roads.

Please let me know by return email if there is anyone you know that has not been out yet. I am concerned some people have not been able to get out at all and might need food or other necessity. I am alerting county and state authorities that this is something to be concerned about at this time, day six of this "concrete snow" storm.

>>>SIMPSON'S HOW TO GUIDE

Please take the time, read Sheriff Simpson's Guide on how to survive snowy conditions below on the road. Heres the link. Thank you.

>>>OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
What do you do in the neighborhood during an "emergency" Winter storm? Find out now.

Sincerely,

Eugene Delgaudio
Sterling District

Friends of Eugene Delgaudio
http://joineugene.com/ (a campaign committee sponsored site)
eugenedelgaudio@erols.com (e-mail address)
**********************************************************
Paid for and authorized by Friends of Delgaudio, the authorized campaign committee of Eugene Delgaudio, Sterling District Supervisor, Loudoun County, Virginia. Donations must -- and should -- be sent to Friends of Delgaudio P.O. Box 1222 Sterling Va. 20167. *Please consider donating as soon as possible, several Democrats are working feverishly to unseat me * Thank you.

POSTSCRIPT: LONG TIME STERLING AMERICAN WRITES

VDOT has gotten to most streets, but as I wrote earlier, this ice needs to be removed house by house and block by block. And no matter where I go, it is tough to remove the stuff for even the physically fit. Some spend hours just to remove it from the sidewalk to the street.

A 63 year old constituent writes:

In my thirty-three years in this house, I have never before been unable to get onto the street for such a long period of time.

As you mentioned (in your newsletter), we are one of those streets where only one pass was made down the road by the plow. That left an area of more than 15 feet between the end of my driveway and the plowed strip in the street.

Needless to say, we have been stuck in our home all week. That space became a solid block of ice that I was unable to chip away, no matter how hard I tried. Yesterday, I put over 40 pounds of salt in the street in that area between our driveway and the plowed strip. I carefully tended it, stirring up any loose stuff as it formed, allowing the salt to work its way lower down. Today I was able to use a heavy straight edge shovel to chip away some blocks of ice and carry them off a few feet down the street so that I will be able to get out to the store tomorrow (I hope). It took many hours of hard work for me, a 63 year old woman. If the salt treatment and the ice removal worked for me, why did the road crews not use salt and a plow to do the same thing? The plow would have done my six hours of work in a few minutes.

BACK TO MY COMMENTS:

In general things appear okay but LETS ALL KEEP OUR EYES OUT.

I remember a time when 3 feet of snow would be considered a big thing and then blow over in two days. This thing is day 6 and this ice is STILL like concrete.

Eugene Delgaudio

Thank goodness the rain is now softening up the ice and hopefully we can all put away our ice picks for another year and focus on the important things, like getting our cars repainted.