Employees of federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, were racing home early ahead of a big storm front that threatened the Washington, D.C. region with wind, rain, hail and perhaps even tornadoes.
The Office of Personnel Management on Monday announced that federal offices would close at 3 p.m. That covers DOE headquarters at the Forrestal Building on the National Mall in Washington and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) headquarters in Rockville, Md., a Washington suburb.
The early closure also affected DOE and NRC satellite offices in Germantown, Md.
The weather was expected to clear up overnight, but the capital city and portions of the surrounding suburbs remained under a tornado watch until 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, according to the National Weather Service. Severe thunderstorms began in the region around 5:30 p.m.
