OMG! Quick, run to the store and stock up on tp, milk and light bulbs! It's the Inaugurationpocalypse! And here I thought yesterday's blizzard was killer.

Has anyone actually rented out their apartment? I see a million ads on Craigslist, but are people finding renters?

1. Buy up lots of toilet paper.
2. Inauguration Day has a huge snow storm.
3. ????
4. PROFIT!

5 million people unpossible.

The National Mall from Grant Statue to Lincoln Memorial Lincoln Memorial is 309.17 acres. With the average sq footage of a tight but comfortable standing room only crowd (shoulder to shoulder) is 7.5sq ft per person. A 5 million tight but comfortable crowd would require 860 acres.

Or nightmare scenario.

An extremely tight crowd, seen at rock concerts, is 5sq/ft per person would require 573 acres.

Even if a million show up, it will fill the mall to Washington Memorial.

Save us all if 5 million people show up....

The portion of that Post article about what parts of the Mall can be used seems confusing. It suggests that the entire Mall east of the Monument is shut down for a parade staging area, but I was on the Mall, east of the Monument, for Clinton's second inaugural and Bush's first (couldn't stomach walking down there for Bush's second). So that can't be right. I'm guessing they mean that there are large areas of the Mall east of the monument that are usually off limits that they're considering opening up this time around?

Does Fenty have anything other than a hunch to back the numbers he's projecting? It seems like his comments have started the big panic on all of this.

Maybe there is a method behind this madness. Could DC officials be overestimating in an attempt to freak people out and keep them from coming in to town? Or would that be thinking too much for DC elected officials?

Hotels are already gone - is there really a benefit for the city if more people come in?

I've already got three people asking to stay in the house that I haven't even moved into yet for inauguration. I predict a massive onslaught of people standing on the left side of escalators, uncertain how to work the card machine at the Metro, and asking each other where the Liberty Bell is.

Good point. Everyone remember to fill up your smart trip cards a week in advance and have that fare ready! Also, be prepared to walk everywhere you go because the metro will probably be unbearable as people park and ride in from all corners of the city.

The ONE is being inaugurated!

The weather will be perfect sunny and 75, everyone will have 7.5 cubic feet of standing room and the pigeons will only poop in designated areas, so no ones jackets will be soiled.

@ eisenhut2000

Looks like MARC is scheduled to run that day - possibly on a reduced schedule though.

Could be an alternative (and largely hidden from tourists) way to get in to the city.

I dunno.. it seems like everyone is talking about going to the inauguration, but I would imagine many people will drop their plans as they realize there is nowhere to stay, they'd have to take off work, it will be extremely crowded, the excitement from the election wears off, etc.

whomever has offices overlooking pennsylvania avenue is in the cat-bird seat right now. people should be renting out space to stick your face in those windows right now.

Yeesh, this sounds horrendous.

I'd love to watch such a historic event all up close and whatnot, but given the onslaught in the days leading up (and especially in my hood (2 blocks to the Capitol)) maybe I'll just camp out in my living room. Probably see more on tv anyway.

I think that the fact that it's not a normal commuter day will actually have a positive impact on Metro. Keep in mind, the day that's always seen as Metro chaos (July 4th) usually has a lower rider total than regular workdays (especially this year). 700k weekdays v 500k 4th of July.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/08/metro-ridership-booms-but-theres-no-room-for-growt/

If locals stay home instead of getting on trains, it might actually free the system up for visitors. Combine people working and major events (like Reagan body viewing) and you get monster ridership.

Then again, don't assume that just because it's a Federal holiday, that employees won't have to work. Anyone associated with security or emergency response or anything else deemed "important" will probably be working both Monday and Tuesday. I know I will be... and probably walking to work at that!

and @RJ , Yay for math!!

My prediction: unusually high percentage of Republicans at ski resorts around the country.

Despite the holiday metro figures, I still think that this is going to be a transit nightmare. What happens to those of us that live in close to the city and want to get in to see the inauguration.

Last month in Philly, after the world series, everyone got on the public transit system to see the parade. Everyone parked at the farthest reaches of the transit system and the trains were full after the first stop. No one was able to get on at the further stops and get into the city. I definitely see the same thing happening here.

Nearly every year, we see stories about hundreds of people crushed to death during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. These crushing incidents happen despite the best, well-funded efforts of the Saudi government and years of experience.

If the crowd goes above 1 million, I have no faith in the DC or Federal government's ability to prevent some truly dangerous "crowd crush" situations from developing. There's a real science to managing a crowd that big; it's not intuitive.

For example, crowd management experts say that you run the risk of crushing fatalities anytime a large crowd exceeds a density of around 7 sq/ft per person. And yet, I see a commenter above saying that FEMA's standard for a standing-room only crowd is 3 sq/ft per person.

People just don't understand what happens in a truly large crowd. Once the crowd becomes so dense that you can't move freely (i.e., you are shoulder to shoulder, butt-to-belly), the crowd starts moving in starts and stops. People start being crushed while still standing up, leading to compressional asphyxia, unconsciousness, and death. When the crowd starts moving again, the already dead/unconscious people fall to the ground and are ultimately trampled. But it's not usually trampling that causes most deaths, it's the crush of people pushing against you while you're still upright.

It only takes the weight of 3 or 4 people on you to cause fatal asphyxia -- those kinds of lateral pressures are very easy to achieve in a large dense crowd.

The crowd control measures required to prevent a crowd-crush at a million+ event are truly oppressive: keep the crowd subdivided and compartmentalized (e.g. in pens of several hundred people each), and under no circumstances allow everyone to leave at once.

DC is damned if it does, and damned if it doesn't. If rigorous crowd control methods are applied, people will be unhappy at being kept penned up in the cold for hours after the event is over. But if rigorous methods aren't applied, the risk of having hundreds die in a crowd crush is all too real.

I'll watch this one on C-SPAN, thanks.