Washington battens down hatches

HURRICANE Isabel put the US capital in crisis mode yesterday, shutting the city’s metro for the first time, closing government offices and putting famous museums off-limits long before the storm hit.

Mayor Anthony Williams declared a state of emergency a day ahead of the feared storm, set to smack into the capital later last night, and told all non-essential workers to ride out the turbulent weather at home.

With the city on a crisis footing and schools and government departments closed, President George W Bush hunkered down at Camp David in Maryland.

The State Department was operating a skeleton staff. At the Pentagon most of the 25,000 civilian and military workers took the day off.

Busy with the Iraq conflict, the Defence Department relied on emergency staff. Pentagon police and military guards were also on duty and defence officials said the military was ready to respond to any request for help in the wake of the storm.

Most members of the House of Representatives and Senate left on Wednesday night well ahead of the storm. But a few chose to ride it out, including passing a resolution honouring the life of country music singer Johnny Cash, who died last week.

Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican who was on hand to help conduct business in the Senate, said high winds were nothing new to Alaskans.

“This isn’t much of a storm. We see 120 to 125-mile-per hour winds in Alaska all the time,” Senator Stevens said.

The shut down of the city’s metro system mid-morning triggered the closure of government offices.

“We had to make the decision and err on the side of caution and safety for our passengers, pedestrians and employees,” said a metro spokeswoman. “We’ve never shut the whole system down like this, never ever.”

Few Washingtonians seemed to mind the subway system shutting down, noting that safety was paramount. “It’s the safe way to do it,” said one Justice Department employee.

Downtown Washington was empty of the usual hustle and bustle, with few cars on the road. But a handful of employees were seen dashing into offices to pick up work and send some last-minute e-mails.

Despite office closures, the government managed to get out its weekly jobless indicator and the Federal Reserve said it did not expect any change in the appointed 2pm release of the minutes of its August 12 meeting.

Washington’s National Zoo, famous for its pandas, put animals indoors and water levels in moats surrounding the lion and tiger enclosures were lowered to deal with heavy rains. “We are well prepared for this storm and all the animals are safe,” said a spokeswoman.

Hotels in the city reported a brisk trade, as did supermarkets and hardware stores where people stocked up on essentials such as batteries, flashlights and water. Fearing floods, thousands of residents sandbagged their homes.

John Marble, whose office is on Capitol Hill, said he had stocked up on water and a few other essentials, before walking a couple of blocks to work.

“It’s a bit like a ghost town up here. No one is on the streets. It’s dark outside, kind of eerie,” said Mr Marble, who as a Florida native is used to hurricanes.

Being the nation’s capital, there were still clumps of tourists trying to take in some sights before the storm hit. Louis Lin, a tourist from Taiwan, and a friend were heading to see the White House before catching a flight to Boston.

“We have checked with the airline and it’s on schedule,” he said. “We are very lucky,” he added. Many flights out of the capital have been cancelled.

The prospect of a hurricane did not deter Hollywood. A crew for Nicholas Cage’s new movie, National Treasure, was laying cable and doing other staging work around the Navy Memorial and the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters for filming due to start over the weekend.