A collection of things
A collection of things
Well that was a bust.
You remember how I said that the storm had changed course and was now to go right over DC? Yeah, well, they were smoking crack. The thing got to about Richmond and hung a left for the mountains. We got some "feeder bands" (my new word for the day) that came through, but I don't think the brunt of the storm ever made it to DC. I crashed at around midnight, and when I woke up this morning, my alarm clock wasn't flashing. We didn't even get a power dip during the night (my alarm clock will reset and start flashing at any excuse).
We did have some flickering earlier in the night. Which lead to me turning things off and unplugging my router, modem, and answering machine. But, that was about it. Though, before I went to bed, Dominion Power (my power company, along with VA Beach and Hamton Roads) was reporting almost 1.5 million people with out electricity. Mark Warner, our govenor, said on the news that he expected it to be closer to 2 mil by dawn. But, that was before Izzie turned on her blinker and made the left turn, so who knows. They do expect it to be several days, if not a week or two, before everyone has power back.
We did have two neighborhoods evacuated around here. If you've ever been to Mount Vernon, it was the neighborhoods around there. They're very lie lowing areas and there was a fear of serious flooding. Which, they are still worried about. Since the storm ended up in the mountains, it'll be a couple of days before all the water gets into the Potomac and Bay, and then out to sea.
About the only cool thing to happen was I acctually saw the Emergency Broadcast System go into effect. I was watching the news, hoping for something interesting to happen, and had flipped over to catch a little of some vampire movie on Sci-Fi when suddenly the screen goes red and I'm told to turn to Channel 8 (the local cable news thingy, I never watch it, so I don't know what they carry, but they aren't network). I turn over there to find out that a flash flood warning is now in effect for my county. I'm on high ground though (the third floor on high ground) so I just turn back to the vampire movie. I'm guessing they can do this on a county by county basis.
The Federal Government made the call to close yesterday and today, not as much because of the storm, but because of Metro, the local mass transit. Metro feared people being blown off elevated platforms, and so closed at 11am on Thursday. Since, a lot of people who work in the city take the metro into work (so you can avoid insane traffic and parking problems) it was decided that it was easier just to close things down, since so many wouldn't be able to get home. I'm sure the fact that they got a load of shit during this winter for not closing during some of the worse snow storms, played in thier minds as well.
The wind here is still a little gusty, but all in all, I've seen worse thunderstorms. At least for what we got here. Move out to the east, closer to the shore, or to the south, and I'm sure they'll tell a different story.
So, that's the way the story ends. I hope you guys had a more eventful night
then I did.