More than 200,000 residents were left without power, and many roads, including part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, were closed through early Monday morning as crews cleaned up fallen trees. More than 16,000 residents remained in the dark after the two-day storm passed.
A Virginia man was killed when a tree crashed down on his home. The Smithsonian National Zoo remained closed until the cleanup was complete.
The storm came in the wake of a three-day heat wave with unusually high temperatures. On Thursday, 60% of the U.S., or 200 million people, were placed under a heat advisory or flood warning or watch, according to the National Weather Service. The heat suddenly broke on Friday night, bringing winds gusting over 80 mph accompanied by torrential rainfall and frequent lightning. Thunderstorms continued into Saturday night. The storm was described as an intense microburst that often produces tornado-like damage. Many regions around the world are experiencing a multi-day heatwave that is one of the hottest on record.
The storm hit the nation’s capital directly after the White House announced that they are negotiating with Saudi Arabia. Media reports claim the negotiations include a normalization agreement with Israel that would require massive concessions to the Palestinians. It is unlikely that the current coalition government would agree to such a deal, and some sources are suggesting that the White House will turn to the leaders of the opposition parties in the hopes of forming a unity government devoid of right-wing parties that will appeal to the anti-Israel elements of the Democratic Party.
While the connection between the negotiations and the storm may seem oblique at best, this phenomenon has happened many times before. When Biden took office in January 2020, he immediately began implementing an anti-Israel policy which included reestablishing relations with the Palestinian Authority and meeting with Iran to jump-start the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
One month later, a polar vortex came sweeping down from the north, hitting the central US with extreme cold. At least 2,400 cold temperature records were broken or tied., some of them going back 75 years or more. Temperatures over the southern and central plains were 40 – 50 °F below average. The low temperatures were accompanied by ice and snow. more than 5 million homes were without power, most of them in Texas. More than 30 people have lost their lives.
The following August, President Biden hosted Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House, pressuring him into accepting a plan that put a total freeze on Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria, and the sections of Jerusalem that were illegally occupied by Jordan before 1967. As Bennett flew home, Hurricane Ida, a category four hurricane, made landfall precisely on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina catastrophically flooded New Orleans, causing over 1,800 deaths and $125 billion in damage. Katrina hit the US in late August 2005, while the Israeli government was forcibly evicting over 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gush Katif.
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