weather

Photo by PoPville flickr user Laura_Grageda

Wow, I was just sitting in my office in Petworth and my lamp about fell off the desk. The room shook pretty violently for what felt like 30 seconds. I’ve gotten emails from Georgetown to Capitol Hill to Columbia Heights all saying the same thing.

Anyone notice any damage?

I’m hearing lots of buildings are being evacuated downtown.

More updates when they become available.

That’s to all who sent the details:

“5.8 (Preliminary magnitude — update expected within 15 minutes)
Date-Time

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 17:51:03 UTC
Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 01:51:03 PM at epicenter

Location 37.875°N, 77.908°W
Depth 6 km (3.7 miles) set by location program
Region VIRGINIA
Distances

15 km (9 miles) S (179°) from Mineral, VA
18 km (12 miles) SSE (154°) from Louisa, VA
26 km (16 miles) ENE (58°) from Columbia, VA
54 km (34 miles) NW (314°) from Richmond, VA
139 km (87 miles) SW (214°) from Washington, DC”

DCFireems tweets at 2:16pm:

“It is advised to Shelter-in-place unless the bldg has damage & unsafe – There are reports of damaged bldgs, but none confirmed at this time”

Update 2:30pm a PoPville twitter follower writes:

“15th &Euclid – Salvadorean Ecuadorian embassy have a huge brick chimney facing the alley & it completely crumbled & blocked alley entrance.”

Update 2:37pm WMATA tweets:

“Metrorail system is open and operating with significant delays. All trains reduced to 15 mph due to ongoing emergency track inspection.”

Downtown 2pm:

Photo of Farragut Square by PoPville flickr user philliefan99

From DPR:

In addition, to help residents beat the heat, the DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) will extend the hours of the following outdoor pools:

Ward 1
Banneker Recreation Center Pool
2500 Georgia Avenue NW
11:00am – 8:30pm

Ward 2
Jelleff Recreation Center Pool
3265 S Street NW
11:00am – 8:00pm

Volta Park Pool
1555 34th Street, NW
11:00am – 9:00pm

Ward 4
Upshur Recreation Center Pool
4300 Arkansas Avenue NW
11:00am – 9:00pm

Ward 5
Langdon Park Pool
2860 Mills Avenue, NW
11:00am – 8:00pm

Theodore Hagans Pool
3201 Fort Lincoln Drive, NE
11:00am 9:00pm

Ward 6
Randall Pool
25 I Street, SW
11:00am – 8:00pm

Ward 7
Benning Park
5100 Southern Avenue, SE
11:00am – 8:30pm

Kelly Miller Pool
4900 Brooks St., NE
11:00am – 8:00pm

Ward 8
Anacostia Pool
1800 Anacostia Drive SE
11:00am – 8:30pm

Douglass Pool
1921 Fredrick Douglass Court, SE
11:00am – 8:00pm

Oxon Run Pool
501 Mississippi Avenue, SE
11:00am – 8:30pm

Alert DC said:

“The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Warning for the District of Columbia and surrounding areas until 9:45pm this evening [Sunday]. This is likely to cause flooding of small streams and potentially cause flooding of some roadways. especially in low-lying areas. Rock Creek in Rock Creek Park is likely to reach flood stage of 7 feet by 7 PM tonight.”

Here are a few pictures from Georgia Ave, NW just south of New Hampshire.

For the folks in Bloomindale – how’d you manage? Anybody experience flooding in other parts of town?

“Dear PoP,

My name is Scott Parker, with the Mormon Church on Capitol Hill (522 7th St SE). It was mentioned in “More Sidewalks of Shame – What to do?”.

I just wanted to apologize for not getting a portion of our sidewalk cleaned sooner. We cleared a single path this afternoon (Fri), and have another little crew working on it right now (as of 6:05 pm Friday) to clear away the ice. Our church has no professional clergy – we all have regular jobs and volunteer our other time for church stuff – which also means we have no church office. That’s why no one could be reached there. But if anyone needs/wants to get a hold of me now or in the future, they can email me at scottparker1 [at] gmail.com. The volunteer church member tasked with clearing the sidewalk moved away since last winter, and we forgot to have that assignment covered. Sorry about that. That’s entirely our fault and we’ll get it fixed. We did do better last year, and shoveled that stretch multiple times. (My back can attest to that ;) Also, the plow that comes is not a church member, just a contractor, and is hired regionally, not by us, but we’ll try and ask for him to pay attention to this as well.

I’m from the area and have lived here on the Hill for the past 8 years (on East Cap for a while and then just off Constitution for the past 4), as do most of our congregants, so we care about getting this stuff taken care. Sorry again for not being on the ball this year. We’ll do better.”

And in other positive clearing sidewalks news, from Rob Mandle, ANC Commissioner 4C10:

“A quick email to the Mayor’s Team (Carly Skidmore and Brandon Starks) and the AFRH (Old Soldiers Home in Petworth) sidewalk has been cleared!”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Columbia Heights Climber

So what’s the verdict?  Have you guys experienced many trees down, wires down, power outages etc?

For those that have to work – how was your commute?

For those that don’t – how are you gonna take advantage of your snow day?

Following are a few emails from DC Gov’t and agencies.

From MPD:

In addition to, at least, $375 in fines for being towed from Snow Emergency Routes, Channel 4 is also reporting $100 fines for cars parked in Rush Hour Routes between the hours of 7am and 930am today and the evening Rush Hour of 4pm and 630pm.

Again: Avoid Snow Emergency Routes & Rush Hour Parking!

If your car is towed, call: 202-541-6083

Locate Towed Vehicle: here.

Snow Emergency Towing Policy:
here.

WMATA writes:

“Metrorail service will open at its usual time and Metrobuses will begin the day on snow emergency routes, with plans to return to as many neighborhood streets as possible as those roads are plowed and conditions improve to the point that it is safe to travel.”

From Meridian Pint (11th and Park Rd, NW):

“In celebration of this wonderful snow day, Meridian Pint will open at 10am with an amazing surprise line up of beers that include 15 beers over 10% and 4 beers over 9%. I know it’s irresponsible of us but c’mon, it’s a snow day in DC. We had originally been planning our opening around the Federal Governments opening/closing but when they let us down by opening 2 hours late, we decided to cut them out of the deal. Beer Director Sam has been in since 7am prepping the beer lines. WE OPEN TODAY, THURSDAY, JANUARY 27 AT 10am!”

From Kramerbooks (1517 Conn. Avenue, NW):

“Thurs., Jan. 27, we will be serving these Snow Day Breakfast Specials all day:

Banana French Toast
Pan-fried Italian bread soaked in egg batter
stuffed w/sliced banana
w/scrambled eggs & hickory bacon
warmed walnut syrup; fruit compote

Café Corned Beef Hash & Eggs
Café corned beef hash crusted under the broiler
(corned beef, onions, potatoes)
topped w/2 eggs – almost any style
finished w/hollandaise; Café potatoes & fresh fruit

Café Croque Madame – A Variation
(May add jumbo lump crab meat, or add lobster meat)
shaved ham, gruyere cheese, hollandaise
on grilled Café bread; fired under the broiler
w/two eggs — almost any style
Café potatoes, fresh fruit”

Photo by PoPville flickr user ianseanlivingston

Photo by PoPville flickr user pablo.raw

If we do get a good snow and a day off tomorrow – be sure to send me (princeofpetworth (at) gmail) or upload some good snow photos to the pool.

Submit your photos to the PoPville flickr pool here. Follow PoPville on twitter here.

I’ll be sure to post/tweet if a snow emergency goes into effect (you’ll have to make sure you’re not parked on a snow emergency route!). You can find a map of snow emergency routes here.

A few recent snow related tweets:

If Fed Gov. Closed tomorrow – Meridian Pint will open at 10am!

From Taylor Gourmet Deli: “Snowmergncy Survival Kit” from Taylor Gourmet NOW! 2 hoagies, 2 chips, 2 drinks,1 fritto – for $20.11″

From Blue Banana on Georgia Ave: “Happy Hour is from 6pm – 8pm with $3 Rails and $5 Beers. Post HH will have Snow Day Shot Specials!”

And of course a snowball fight has already been scheduled for Dupont Circle tonight, Wednesday, January 26 · 8:00pm – 11:00pm. Let me know if you hear of any others tomorrow!

Unfortunately at my house it’s still raining…

Photo by PoPville flickr user Faucetini

Update: It’s now snowing…a lot.

Photo by PoPville flickr user K’s Clicks

“Dear PoP,

I’m finding that no one but me (and the hardcore weather geeks) are talking about this yet. Six to ten inches! Squee!

from dcstorms.com:

**Major Winter Storm Will Impact Washington & Baltimore**
Wednesday: Periods of snow mixed with rain becoming a steady, heavy, wet snow during the afternoon. Morning highs near 35 falling to 30 by 2PM. Heavy wet snow accumulations of 6 to 10″. Chance of snow 100%.”

What do you guys think – is this gonna be our first real snowstorm of the year?