Hurricane Sandy in Cleveland Park

Here was the scene at Newark and 35th Street, where the brick sidewalk is now up in the air.

Multiple truck crews were working all day to cut up the tree -- but it's going to take a while.

Meanwhile, on Newark east of 34th Street, there's another one down.

Editorial: DC's Websites Get an F for Emergency Information

When it comes to getting emergency information to DC residents, the District of Columbia Government's websites fail.

As we prepare for Hurricane Sandy, take a look at the DC government's main website, dc.gov. You'll see a slide show of Mayor Gray, with numerous self-promoting articles about our mayor. There are a few links to general information about Hurricane Sandy off to the side, but these links lead to out-of-date and mostly useless information, including a press release from Saturday with the headline, "Mayor Gray, Public Safety Officials and Other District Leaders to Brief Media on Preparations for Hurricane Sandy Tomorrow."

City agency websites don't do any better. The Department of Transportation's website, ddot.dc.gov, leads with this headline, "DDOT is adding paint to make bike lanes more visible." The Department of Public Works website, www.dpw.dc.gov, is just as useless. There's no information about where the DC government is giving out sandbags and no information about trash pickup during the storm.  The most recent headline on DPW's website is "DPW to Observe Columbus Day, Mon., Oct. 8." When DPW changed the location today, Sunday, for sandbag pickup to Coolidge High School (6315 5th Street, NW from 10am to 6pm), you didn't see that announcement on their website. The District of Columbia's Homeland Security and Emergency Management's Agency's website, www.hsema.dc.gov, is also pathetic when it comes to providing information that's actually useful during a current emergency. (WMATA's website, www.wmata.com, is better and actually tells you what is happening with Metro during Hurricane Sandy.)

The DC government encourages people to follow their various agencies on Twitter for up-to-date information, but we shouldn't have to follow a half dozen DC government agencies in the hope of seeing important information, before that 140 character announcement is pushed out of view by other tweets.  Even if you follow a city agency on Twitter, that doesn't mean that they'll be up-to-date with important or urgent information. It was Andrea Roane of WUSA-TV, Channel 9, who called DPW to ask if trash collection would be suspended on Monday and then tweeted about it. (Yes, trash and recycling pickups are suspended on Monday.) This is the kind of information that DC should put on its website during an emergency, rather than featuring glossy publicity photos of elected officials.

Compare DC's website to New York City's: www.nyc.gov. Or to Wilmington, Delaware's: www.ci.wilmington.de.us. When it comes to getting emergency information to its citizens, those cities' websites aren't a useless embarrassment, as the District of Columbia's website is.  We should be able to go to DC.gov to find out what's happening during an emergency. It's time for the DC government to fix this. It's not hard to do and it's very important.

After Sandy has passed there will be plenty of debate about what we could have done better. But there is no question that the city must make its websites better.

Bill Adler and Peggy Robin

Publishers, All Life Is Local

The Cleveland Park Listserv

www.cleveland-park.com

Hurricane Irene Scrapbook: The Farewell Chapter

All of the photos below were sent in by Olivier Denier Long, who took them on Yuma Street. As the cleanup proceeds apace and roads reopen, we will let this collection of shots stand as our "farewell and good riddance" to Irene and all she left behind.

Hurricane Irene: The Cleanup Goes On & So Do the Photos

Thanks to all Cleveland Park Listserv members who continue to send in photos. We wish we had space to post them all. Here's another sampling of the most dramatic shots. The theme here is "Trees where you don't want to see trees."

What you don't want to see in your rearview mirror

What you don't want to see out your window
Photo by Ethan Kiczek

The tree, above, seen from outside
Photo by Ethan Kiczek

Unwanted change to landscaping of koi pond
Photo by Walter Birkel

More Photos of Irene's Aftermath

Like begets like: Cleveland Park Listserv members are continuing to send in their photos of fallen trees and powers line in the wake of Hurricane Irene. Along with her photo (second one), Mary Alice Levine notes: "There are two large trees down and two telephone polls down on the 3700 block of Yuma.  Needless to say, power is out. At 3900 Yuma, there is one large tree down between houses, and both houses are okay.  Remarkably, that block still has power."

Cortland Place, photo by Bill Menczer

Tree and lines down, photo by Mary Alice Levine

photo by Molly Magnuson

80 year old linden tree down on Cortland Place, by Bill Menczer

Dangling wires, photo by Christina Chu

Pepco to Replace Live Trees with Storm-Proof Artificial Trees to Prevent Power Outages

The Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) announced today that it will be planting artificial, storm-proof trees throughout the District of Columbia and Montgomery County. According to Pepco, these artificial trees will be able to withstand heavy snowfalls, ice storms, and winds of up to 100 miles per hour. “We’re excited about the storm-proof tree initiative,” said Pepco’s arborist, Mary Conti. “These trees, which are composed of carbon nanofibers, are able to hold up against just about anything that nature can whip up. Replacing living trees with artificial trees will dramatically reduce the number of power outages in the Washington, DC area.”

Pepco plans to initially replace some 4,500 living trees with artificial trees. “None of these real trees has a life expectancy of more than 20 years,” Conti said. “Compare that to the Pepco trees that will last for at least a century.” The 4,500 trees that Pepco has targeted for replacement either intersect or overhang power lines. That alone should reduce the power outage rate by 75 percent, Pepco says. Eventually, Pepco plans to replace approximately 15,000 trees with these modern, indestructible artificial trees.

Pepco’s artificial tree project is in response to customer’s requests to have more reliable electricity.

Pepco, which already has considerable experience at cutting down trees, expects that it will take approximately eight months to replace the first batch of 4,500 trees. “When the next snowpocalypse strikes, we’ll just laugh at it,” Conti said.

Pepco pointed out that area residents will be impressed, even wowed, by these artificial trees, because they were created by the award-winning Italian design firm FioreNuovo. “We think that people will like our Pepco trees even more than actual trees,” Conti said.

Each tree will have three openings that lead to spacious hollows inside for squirrels, raccoons, birds and other critters to establish homes. “These are not just beautiful, but eco-friendly trees. I know that the squirrels will be very happy.” The upper leaves on the trees can be replaced with solar-cell coated leaves at a future date so that not only will we have fewer power outages, but the Pepco trees will actually generate more energy. “An ordinary tree can’t make electricity,” Conti pointed out. “Our trees are better than nature.”

The cut-down trees will be turned into firewood and given away to needy families, Pepco said.

There's more information about this on our companion email list, the Cleveland Park Listserv.

Earl's Not Coming to DC. Are You Sad?

Hurricane Earl won't be affecting the District this weekend.  If you want a windy Labor Day weekend, if you enjoy storms, you'll have to go to the beach.  Oh, wait.  They're evacuating parts of the coast.  Never mind about that.

In place of Earl we'll be getting milder temperatures Saturday, Sunday and Monday -- in the neighborhood of the upper 70's to lower 80's.  Sunny and mostly clear skies, so wear sunscreen or you'll end up feeling like that burger you're grilling. 

Hurricane season is far from over and more storms are brewing in the Atlantic.  There's still a chance that we'll be adding "hurricane days" to the "snow days" we had this past winter and "power outage" days we had this summer.