dc stuff

[nacho]

My god. We got our asses kicked. I'm actually stranded at home. Can't get out my neighborhood. Four foot flood waters at one end and live wires and a 70 year old tree down at the other.

In the parking lot, another huge tree came down...and totalled every car but three. I'm one of those three! How awesome is that?

Over 100000 without power. Pepco says it'll take days to get sorted.

[RottingCorpse]

Crazy. We got light showers last night.

[Sirharles]

Another big storm just passed the house this evening...still have power...until the skies clear up and it gets sunny and muggy again.  That's when the power usually goes out.

[nacho]

It's still crazy here.  Took a tour of the neighborhoods (because the main road was blocked this afternoon) and every sidestreet is blocked.  Trees, power lines, you name it.  And I saw three houses that have literally been smashed by giant trees.  There are those huge crane trucks lifting these fuckers off of roofs.  It's like something you'd see on TV after a hurricane or a serious tornado.

Went out to Safeway after traffic died down and passed through the park area.  That's where I grew up...was there for all the famous big DC storms in the 70's and 80's.  The flooding reached areas that I have never seen before.  Incredible damage, too. The riverbank has moved!

[nacho]

Holy hats... There is no part of Rock Creek that you can't normally wade across. (We got 2-4 inches of rain throughout the region today.)

[nacho]

Local DC LOL's... The Moonies are back!

OK, so Dan Snyder is out. But Rev. Sun Myung Moon is back? The Washington Times deathwatch continues! New up this morning: The Washington Post reports that Moon is considering buying back the beleaguered New York Avenue newspaper from Preston Moon, the eldest son who has controlled the broadsheet for the past four years. The AP confirms with the Times' executive editor that a deal is in the works to sell the newspaper to a "company affiliated with the Unification Church."

Which would probably bode well for the future of the paper—or what's left of the paper after Preston Moon's regime—and for the Times op/ed page remaining an entertaining home of right wing wisdom mainlined from the blogosphere. Stay tuned!

[nacho]

The Reflecting Pool (which, yes, is sinking into the swamp that lies beneath DC) is about to get a second life:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/bus/2010/08/24-30/County-firm-to-rebuild-National-Mall-reflecting-pool.html

[nacho]

Oh, sorry, the current DC thing is to "mythbust" the swamp thing.  It is, in fact, a tidal plain and has a very rich topography including hills and wetlands! Whinge!

[nacho]

So we have this really pretty new bike trail that follows (mostly) the rail corridor down to Union Station (starting a few miles away near my house), and there's been a rash of assaults.... Two examples I found today:

DC's new hip crime -- throwing bodily fluids at people:

This evening at about 7:50 I was heading South on my bike, going from Brookland to Capitol Hill to visit a friend. I was approaching the section just North of Rhode Island Ave. where there’s a parking lot and shopping plaza. About four black youths (junior-high age) were at the bench along the trail, when one of them (the smallest kid, no more than 4 feet tall) came out with a large plastic drink cup and doused liquid at me, hitting my chest. It was not water. It was bodily fluids. I stopped and got off my bike, and tried to catch the perpetrator but they all dispersed (laughing), and I realized it was futile, so I got back on the bike and continued. I made it to my friend’s house, promptly took a shower and threw away the clothes I had on, and then called 911 to report the crime. The dispatcher said that since I was no longer at the scene, they couldn’t file a report, but that they would send an officer to check out the area.”

And an oldie but a goodie:

“I was riding my bike home from work on the Metro Branch Trail about 3:45 pm this afternoon (Saturday) when a female member of a group of 6 young teenagers stood up from a bench and pushed me off my bike as I rode by. I slammed into the fence along the trail. She then proceeded to sit back down on the bench as I struggled with my bike. They did not attempt to take anything from me. This happened a few hundred feet from the entrance onto the trail at 8th and Edgewood, right by DC Prep. I rode my bike(which was all bent out of alignment) to the trail head and called police. The police responded quickly and were very helpful, but the kids were gone.

I am bruised and shaken, but basically okay.”

[nacho]

Weather apocalypse resumes!  Tropical Storm Nicole is about to hit DC.

Why not add a tropical storm to the list of absurd extreme weather phenomena we've suffered through this year? Tropical Depression 16, soon to be named Tropical Storm Nicole, is expected to pass through the D.C. region on Thursday, bringing along heavy rains, strong winds, and a renewed sense that someone out there—either God, or at the Weather Channel—really doesn't like the District much.

[nacho]

I just took a closer look at the weather report for tomorrow and... Well, I put in for the day off.  When we got hit by one of these in last August, one end of my street was under four feet of sewage and the other end was an electrical death trap tangled in a fallen 100 year old tree.  The wreckage is still lying around.  Hell, wreckage from the fucking Snowpocalypse is still lying around!

Hell, the only way out of my neighborhood for three days after that August storm was on foot.

Plus, a super storm coming through and I'm going to sit in my sad, windowless office and miss it all?  I don't think so. And, if work loses power, then the new policy is for us to sit here and answer the phones in the dark until they conk out as well.  Fuck that.

[nacho]

See?  People mocked me for taking today off. I think you're all wrong. I'm alive because I took today off.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2066415

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- The severe weather in Montgomery County on Thursday morning should not have been a factor in the Metrobus collision that left dozens injured, a Metro spokesperson says.

The driver of the bus, which rear-ended another Metrobus on University Boulevard near Brunett Avenue at roughly 7:15 a.m., should not have been affected by the heavy morning rain, says Metro spokesperson Reggie Woodruff.

"Weather does present different hazards. Our bus operators are trained and prepared for it."

The driver, who has been cited by Montgomery County Police for failing to control vehicle speed, has been a Metro driver since 2008. He will undergo a standard drug and alcohol test.

Police and fire officials now say 26 people were injured in the collision. At least 20 people were taken to the hospital.

None of the injuries is considered life-threatening, Montgomery County Fire Department Assistant Chief Scott Graham tells WTOP.

Some of the victims are Montgomery County high school students, Graham says.

[Reginald McGraw]

Okay, so lots of rain and some wind, but not too crazy.  Except:  I went out for a soda this afternoon.  I was gone for 15 minutes.  I came back to one of the small (4 inch diameter) trees outside the door to the building, completely uprooted.  It was a little freaky!

[nacho]

Yeah.  World ending here!  Just over rain and nothing more...

[nacho]

Man, I feel bad.  My middle American Facebook buddies have all been OMG the Pentagon shootings!  What happened?  AAHHH!

One of them asked about the "shootings in DC" and I asked her "Which one?"  because, like most days, it's been crazy here.  The Pentagon shooter, the kid getting mowed down on GA Ave, and the police chase shootout.

I realized, sadly, that the Pentagon shooting (and the others) barely registered.  Just, ho-hum.  Another fine morning in DC! And I'm not alone, either.  Quick office straw poll shows that no one here heard or cared about the Pentagon shooting.

It's always weird to be reminded that DC is more of a distant space station than a part of America.