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:

    “A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
    And his love Thisbe, very tragical mirth”—
    Merry and tragical? Tedious and brief?
    That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow!
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Hail, Columbia! happy land!
    Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band!
    Who fought and bled in Freedom’s cause,
    Who fought and bled in Freedom’s cause,
    And when the storm of war was gone,
    Enjoyed the peace your valor won.
    Let independence be our boast,
    Ever mindful what it cost;
    Joseph Hopkinson (1770–1842)

    Here lies interred in the eternity of the past, from whence there is no resurrection for the days—whatever there may be for the dust—the thirty-third year of an ill-spent life, which, after a lingering disease of many months sank into a lethargy, and expired, January 22d, 1821, A.D. leaving a successor inconsolable for the very loss which occasioned its existence.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)