People living in other parts of the country may not fully recognize the magnitude of the results in the three Feb. 12 'Chesapeake primaries'--Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. That Obama trounced Clinton in a high-turnout Democratic race has been widely reported. But people living elsewhere may not know the full extent of the weather event, that afternoon and evening, that produced almost unparalleled gridlock all over the tri-state area.

From an inside-the-Beltway precinct, I heard firsthand accounts of multiple vehicle accidents on every major road. Every bridge in the area iced over--meaning that EVERY bridge on roads connecting Virginia to Maryland or the District, etc., was icy. One woman who came to vote told me it had taken her three hours to drive from Landmark, Virginia, to a Maryland suburb slightly north and east of the District line. A neighbor of mine told me it had taken her an hour to drive from College Park, Maryland, to our suburb--a 15-minute drive. The only worse conditions for driving historically have been outright blizzards.

It can be accurately stated without exaggeration that every traffic artery, leading in every direction from the District to Maryland or Virginia, was blocked. The police and state troopers blocked off Interstate 95 connecting Baltimore and D.C. The local highway leading around Bladensburg, MD, to Rt. 1 was blocked. Benning Road, coming north on the east side of the District into Maryland, was blocked. The highway connecting Annapolis and metro D.C. was either blocked or gridlocked.

In other words, the overwhelming majority of the thousands of individuals commuting home to the District from either north--Maryland up through Baltimore--or south--northern Virginia, or commuting home to either Virginia or Maryland from work in D.C., fought hours of gridlock from accidents, ice or police activity. One woman described sitting in traffic on the 14th St bridge and watching all the other vehicles skidding and fishtailing, and crashing, below and around her.

The result: Voter turnout in the late afternoon and at night, always the heaviest turnout of the day in any election in this area--primary or general--thinned to a steady trickle. I would estimate that turnout was quite possibly only one-tenth of what is usual after work, even in primaries.

It is a tribute to the patriotism and civicmindedness of the thousands of people who risked life and limb to get to the polls that they voted at all. And the outcome was definitive, as has been reported. But make no mistake: Turnout would have been probably at least 30 percent to 50 percent higher if not for the freakish cold snap and 'wintry mix' of ice, sleet and rain that disrupted traffic on every artery in the corridor from Baltimore to northern Virginia. The outcome would have been at least as good for Obama, and the turnout would have broken more records.