Tuesday, August 28, 2012
The Mid-Atlantic may not be in the crosshairs now, but the hurricane season is far from over.
As local residents mark the one-year anniversay of Hurricane Irene's brush with the Mid-Atlantic region—and as newly-minted Hurricane Isaacchurns toward the northern Gulf Coast—now's as good a time as any to revisit some tips for storm preparedness. Prince George's County was spared the worst of Irene, which wreaked havoc up and down the Eastern seaboard. But the 2012 hurricane season is far from over, and some precationary measures shouldn't wait until a storm is imminent. Just before Irene arrived last year, Patch spoke with David Milligan—College Park chair of the Citizen Corps Council—about ways to prepare. He offered the following pre-storm tips: The National Hurricane Center also has a long list of pointers and resources available …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Prince George's County Public Schools officials have set a final date.
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Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Kids, circle June 8 on the calendar. Draw stars around it. Make big plans for the day. The last day of school for students in Prince George's County Public Schools will be Friday, June 8. The last day for teachers will be Monday, June 11. Other employees scheduled to work a 10- or 11-month schedule should confirm their last day of work with their supervisors. Although all Prince George’s County schools were closed on Aug. 24 due to the earthquake and on Aug. 29 due to Hurricane Irene, make-up days were held on Oct. 21 and Feb. 13—both previously scheduled "off" days. Individual schools that were closed for additional days due to natural disasters adjusted the length of their school day to make up instructional time.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sprint customers living in University Park didn't have cell service through the earthquake and Hurricane Irene.
For nearly two months, dozens of University Park residents couldn’t use their cell phones in town. The Sprint service they had wasn’t working within town limits, because a cell tower was down after an electrical storm in August. For many of those customers, their only phone was their cell phone as landlines have become nearly extinct. University Park resident Jenny Glenn said the town’s listserv was filled with dozens of accounts from residents dealing with this issue. Glenn said during the earthquake and Hurricane Irene, while many residents were dealing with three-day long power outages, they had no way to call 9-1-1, family or anyone in an emergency or to report they were OK unless they left town. She called her mother from the parking …
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Power has been fully restored to town, he reports, but some residents are still experiencing brief power outages and phone service interruptions.
University Park Mayor John Tabori sent out a note Thursday updating residents on the town's power outages. "At this time it appears that all power has been restored in town and all down lines have been removed from the streets," he wrote, "However, some minor issues remain. A number of individuals have noted brief power outages as well as problems with telephone service." Tabori said the town hall is still experiencing issues with its phone service Town Hall remains but he believes the issues will be remedied within the next couple of days. He reminded residents to contact town hall through e-mail if needed for non emergencies and provided the following safety tips post-Hurricane Irene: Tabori added, "since electricians are not cheap, it …
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Although the quake and hurricane closed down schools for a few days, the county schools are always prepared to handle evacuation situations.
County schools officials were just as surprised as everyone else when the earthquake hit on Aug. 23. Yet, schools already have an evacuation plan ready — remember those fire drills — and that helped them calmly leave the building after the quake. "We have a normal plan that schools have for an evacuation mode that's implemented from the first day of school," Prince George's County Public Schools spokesman Briant Coleman said. "How the schools ran (after the earthquake) is commendable because not one student or staff member was injured." Although all schools remained closed Wednesday and some Thursday, as the county assessed damage, the schools only counted one day towards the earthquake. Since then one school, Bradbury Heights Elementary …
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Due to issues with Verizon lines, residents may be getting the busy signal when calling town hall.
University Park residents may be feeling a little ignored or frustrated when calling town hall, as they might be getting a continued busy signal. University Park Mayor John Tabori said in an e-mail Tuesday that the town's phone lines have been damaged by Irene leaving only one working line for staff to answer. The issue has been ongoing since Sunday, which could be adding to the frustration of residents who are dealing with power outages themselves. Tabori said Verizon is working on the issue and expects to restore service in the next 24 hours. "In the meantime, just keep trying or if you have internet service, email us, " he said. Residents can e-mail townhall@upmd.org or mayor@upmd.org to get a hold of town staff.
The mayor and council met Monday night for a work session.
Editor's Note: This post was corrected. In an earlier version of this post we misidentified the direction of the double turn lane proposed for Route 1. We regret the error. Riverdale Park's mayor and council met Monday night after a short summer recess and discussed a number of topics making a normally two-hour long meeting, stretch out to almost four hours. These are just briefs from the meeting, specific stories will follow this post. The council will meet next on Tues, Sept. 6 at 8 p.m. at town hall.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Have a ton of yard waste from Hurricane Irene's weekend visit? Here's what you can do with it.
The county's department of public works and transportation and town DPWs will be collecting a little more yard waste than usual this week, after Hurricane Irene swept through the region over the weekend. For residents, who live within the town limits of Univerity Park, UPDPW will be picking up yard waste Monday, but realize there might be more than can be picked up in a day. The department asks that residents bag all debris when possible or put it in trash or recycling carts. Branches will be left for last due to the time-consuming nature of collection. In Riverdale Park, DPW Director Leonard Addison said in order to help the town clean the city faster, residents should bundle their big branches and put all yard waste in bags or in …
Gov. Martin O’Malley says some residents may be in the dark for days.
More than 450,000 households in Maryland remained without power 35 hours after peak rain and winds from Hurricane Irene hit the state, and the Baltimore area could experience outages until Friday, officials said Monday. “We have not stopped working since the storm hit,” Gov. Martin O'Malley said from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency’s Reisterstown headquarters. But many remained in the dark. "There are some people who are going to be without electricity for a long period of time—several days,” he said. “We will try our best to give you better estimates so you can make accommodations.” Peak power outages hit Sunday, with 822,000 homes' electricity knocked out by winds of up to 65 mph and heavy rain. Wind gusts peaked at 85 mph. BGE…
On Monday a few residents are still stuck without power.
Update, 2:38 p.m.: University Park Mayor John Tabori said there are two areas in town where power lines remain down. Pepco crews are working at the site of Clagett Road, while a crew has not yet been assigned to the 4000 block of Van Buren Street. According to Tabori, Pepco is estimating that all service throughout the area will be restored by Thursday. He asked for residents to notify the town and Pepco of power outages on their streets. Update, 1 p.m.: The number of outages in the area being reported on the Pepco outage map is falling. Zip codes 20737, 20740, 20742, 20770 As of 1 p.m., there were 1,484 homes and businesses still reporting no power in the College Park, Greenbelt and Riverdale Park areas. That's 534 fewer than were being …
Melissa Avery
10:20 am on Tuesday, August 30, 2011
I love the picture - it is worth 1000 words. more ›