But James had little choice once the Metro halted its trains and buses at 11 a.m. Thursday. “It wouldn’t have made a lot of sense to get people in early and leave them with no way to get home,” says OPM spokesman Eldon Girdner. Even when the weather cleared Friday morning, the government stayed closed. OPM said officials didn’t want commuters on streets blocked by downed power lines, blinking traffic signals and fallen trees. This may have made Washington look wimpy, but Isabel delivered a real blow: flooding plagued waterfront areas in Georgetown; Alexandria, Va., and Baltimore. And by Friday morning, more than 1 million homes in the metro area were without electricity–and expected to remain that way for days.
