Reports of an 11 year old kid killed when a tree fell into his apartment.
Aww, crud. When Isabel hit, our guild-leader lived in Newport News and they were out of power and water for WEEKS. It was a real mess. I hope they get faster/better support this time. 
6pm HSEMA Status Update:
Roads closed: 1
Broadbranch and Kalmia Rd. NW
Power Outages: 1352 outages reported by Pepco
Wires Down: 3
Kansas Ave. and Sheridan St. NE
4700 block of Southern Ave. SE
783 19th St. NE
Key Signal Outage Locations: No outages at this time.
Trees Down: 3
783 19th St. NE
1700 A St. SE
3700 35th St. NW
Status of Metro Bus and Rail: Service is running normal at this time.
Status of Schools: DCPS reports no issues to schools
Status of Government Bldgs: DRES reports no issues at this time.
Any injuries: No injuries at this time.
Weather update: At 5PM the center of Hurricane Irene was located 180 miles due south of Washington, D.C. The storm was heading NNE at 13 MPH. Storm intensity was 85 MPH peak winds; this is a Category 1 Hurricane
The eye of Hurricane Irene is expected to move along and just off the Atlantic Coast, passing just east of Ocean City, and just east of the Jersey Shore, finally making landfall somewhere near New York City. Washington D.C., on the western edge of the storm, is expected to be impacted by steady tropical-storm force winds of 35-45 MPH, with gusts to 65 MPH. Winds will steadily pick up between now and 8PM, peaking between 8PM and 6AM Sunday.
Temperature is currently 72 and is forecast to remain steady for several hours. Rainfall of approximately 4-7 inches is likely between now and the overnight hours.
And why has your ass not plugged it in to charge? It will stay charging until the power goes out.
And next chance you get, go out and get a hand crank charger for your cell, or one of the battery thingys normally for cars, but they act as power points for charging cells just beautifully.
Cell phone trouble? Charge up the thing. THEN turn it off till you NEED to use it. If you only turn it on for a few minutes every couple hours the thing should last for days. And if you can’t seem to really turn it off, pop the battery out.
NBC News has six different people standing around outside in rain gear getting their asses blown all over the place. OK, that’s part of the job and they get paid well for it. The people who have my sympathy are the camera operators who have to be in the same weather while holding a 25 lb camera on their shoulder.
Talked to my dad in Queens; they seem remarkably relaxed, but I think he’s really glad right now that he doesn’t work in the maintenance planning aree for the NY Transit Authority anymore. 
His biggest fear is that their Internet will go out and that he and my stepmom will actually have to talk to each other.
My aunt, on the other hand, has a beach house on Long Beach Island, and she’s convinced it’s going to wash away and she’s never going to see it again. Which isn’t a totally crazy prospect, from the sounds of it.
Yeah, but at the same time, they just interviewed a woman on the street here (I can’t remember what channel), and the conversation went something like this:
Reporter: “So why haven’t you and your family left yet?”
Woman: “Well, you know, sometimes you guys in the media hype these things up, and exaggerate them, so…”
Pardon my language, but what a fucking idiot. It’s sad to think about all the people who were on the fence about leaving that she just convinced to stay. Yeah, I get it, you want to stay with your house, and that’s your prerogative. But don’t go on a major television station in New York City and say “You guys are making this look like a bigger deal than it is”, for all the city to see.
Well, they asked her, and broadcast the answer.
The presumption that the media are making things look like a bigger deal than they are is not, per se, invalid.
Uh, my ass plugged it in last night, where it has remained since.
It’s raining hard here in SE PA. We went out to dinner at a local steakhouse, and enjoyed being seated right away on a Saturday night for the first time ever.
The hard rain started in NJ about 15 minutes ago (it’s been raining off and on for longer, but nothing all that wet). The second we heard the rain hit my wife and I both looked at each other and said “why didn’t we take advantage of everyone staying at home when we had the chance?” :smack:
Four dopers killed at Western Sizzler during Irene, update at 11!
It was a live feed, of course they broadcast the answer.
No argument here. I just thought it was incredibly irresponsible thing to say on live television, especially with her husband and daughter standing right next to her. What kind of lesson does that teach her kid? “Never listen to the media, sweetheart, they exaggerate.”
An accurate lesson?
We’ve had steady rain here in northern Baltimore for a few hours now. Not too windy yet.
I’m really not looking forward to our power being knocked off, but it’s pretty inevitable. We’re on a very rural road, and apparently it’s not unheard of for us to be stranded by trees falling across the road. Being stuck here without power is *not *my idea of fun.
An accurate lesson?
Look, if I listened to the local media every time there was a tornado within 100 miles of here, I’d be cowering in my bathroom all spring. The media does exaggerate, the media is full of shit, and the media is wrong. Learn some common sense, learn something about the weather, find a weather channel that shows the actual weather patterns, and use that in addition to common sense to decide what to do. As a short lesson to a pre-teen, “Never listen to the media, sweetheart, they exaggerate,” isn’t wrong.
I thought I heard my roof leaking. It turned out to be the cat taking a bath. Crisis averted!
Crap! A tornado warning was just announced for Burlington county. I’m in Burlington county! My radio is emitting the 4 warning tones every 20 seconds. Okay, okay, I admit it. I’m officially concerned.
Dude, you’re not making any sense. I was born and raised in Oklahoma; I’m not disputing the fact that tornado watches are overly frequent and the media sensationalizes it for ratings. I’m talking about this specific situation. Stop trying to turn it into some kind of rant against The Media. This particular family was living on Long Island Sound, for Christ’s sake. There was absolutely no reason for them to still be there. Every single channel, including TWC, is making it clear this is no joke. Sure, it might weaken by the time it gets here, but if you’re going to teach your kid a lesson right now you may want to go with “Better safe than sorry”.