Snowbound

School officials’ caution dates back to a 1990 snowstorm that dumped several inches of unexpected snow, paralyzing the city and forcing 1,200 children to spend the night in their classrooms. Since then, the state’s largest school district and its suburban neighbors close as a precaution when snow threatens.

On one of the city blogs, I read a note from someone who as a kid was one of those trapped at school, without power. A parental nightmare I'd prefer to avoid. Today, Capitol Hill is a maze of cordoned roads, car accidents and jackknifed buses. I remember an ice incident from our previous house, watching an SUV sliding slowly backward down the road toward our yard. Bizarre. And the current budget, I think we can safely guess, does not include additional snow equipment.