Ice Storm of January 1999

The Ice Storm of January 1999 was a severe ice storm that struck the Washington D.C. metropolitan area on January 14 and 15, 1999. Heavy ice accumulation bringing down power lines resulted in around 745,000 people in the area losing power. Many of the major power companies supplying DC, Maryland, and Virginia had significant portions of their customer bases impacted. At the height of the storm, around one third of PEPCO's customers were without power, with some waiting up to two weeks for power to be restored.

Famous quotes containing the words ice, storm and/or january:

    “Adjoining a refreshment stand ... is a small frame ice house ... with a whitewashed advertisement on its brown front stating, simply, “Ice. Glory to Jesus.” The proprietor of the establishment is a religious man who has seized the opportunity to broadcast his business and his faith at the same time.”
    —For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    “Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
    Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
    My child sleeps on.”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “and you undid the reins
    and I undid the buttons,
    the bones, the confusions,
    The New England postcards,
    the January ten o’clock night,
    and we rose up like wheat....”
    —Anne Sexton (1928–1974)