Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1937-03-18
SnOwdrifts Block
Traffic All Over
Maryland Roads
Lack Of Snow Flows And High
way Equipment Bring
Criticism Of Officials

With an unusual snowfall for this
time Of the year, Maryland found it
self locked in this week, roads block
ed, communications crippled and .
dreadful want Of necessary equipment
to clear the highways leading to the
principal cities and communities. The
snow, falling Sunday and Monday,
was whipped across the high points
by rising wind. Amazing drifts Of
from four to eight feet accumulated.
Not snow plow was in sight and the
feeble efforts Of worthy taxpayers
armed with shovels went to naught.
Cars Stranded In Drifts
In many ways the snowfall and its
results We're astonishing. One might
ride along for several miles without
encountering any difficulty when, all
Of sudden, a six-foot drift would
loom in front of him. It was hard to
get traction. And while one car was
in the process of being extricated, the
road behind would be blocked with
new traffic.
Widespread criticism Of the State
Roads Commission was heard in every
quarter. The lack of snow plows and
laborers caused many tie-ups which
might have otherwise been prevented,
observers declared. In many cases the
snow plows of the smaller type were
themselves blocked in drifts for many
hours.
Mail Carriers Baked
Rural mail carriers, In most in
stances, gave up and returned to their
postofices. Statesmen and travelling
men reported back to their firms and
even the police and firemen were bad
ly hampered in their efforts to
answer accident alarms. School chill
dren, in the rural districts, were I'M
able to get to their studies. The tele-
phone and public service companies
found roads in terrible condition.
While no unusual number of serious
accidents were reported, quite few
mishaps occurred, owing to the slip
perry highways and narrow lanes Of
traffic.
Automobiles, trucks, buses, sew
eral school buses and funeral were
reported stalled in snowdrifts through
out the day. Few of the residents Of
upper Montgomery County got to
work Tuesday. The car of Mrs. Clara
Arnold, with Mrs. Helen Duvall, Sec
rotary to States Attorney James H.
Pugh, overturned while the pair was
en- route to work. Both were shaken
up, but not injured.
County Commissioner Richard H.
Lansdale and other county officials
and clerks who reside in the Olney
section were unable to get to the court
house. Snowdrifts blocked the road
from Olney to Norbeck. The road
from Olney to Ellicott City also was
reported full Of drifts.
A cattle truck belonging to Clay
Plummer, of Gaithersburg, cattle
dealer, stalled at Ounce Orchard and
State roads men dug it out. The new
telephone exchange at Gaithersburg
was placed in service yesterday in
time to bear the heaviest traffic in
months.
School children depending on bus
transportation were sent home early.
One bus, loaded with 25 children, was
stalled in a 7-foot snowdrift near
White Oak on the Avenel road.
The Cedar Grove to Damascus road
and the road from Laytonsville to
Woodfeld were deeply drifted as were
the roads near Seneca and in the
Poolesville area.
Most Of the main roads IN the SUI
burban area were kept open by county
and State roads trucks, but the Rock
vile pike felt the effects of the drift
ing snow.