extreme cold

Ballston Movie Theater, Doorways Home Closed Due to Flooding

By ARLnow.com

Ballston Regal theater closed due to flooding Ballston Regal theater closed due to flooding

Update at 8:45 p.m. — First Down Sports Bar and Grill had to shut down tonight, also due to a burst water pipe. From the businesses’ Facebook page: “We have had to close down suddenly for tonight because of a water pipe burst. Hopefully, we’ll be back up and running tomorrow. We will have an update on here as soon as we figure it out. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Update at 8:35 p.m. — Tonight’s Arlington County Democratic Committee debate for County Board candidates was briefly evacuated tonight when a reported burst pipe triggered the fire alarm in the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association building.

(Updated at 11:40 p.m.) The Regal Ballston Common 12 theater was closed tonight due to flooding from ruptured water pipes.

Three pipes burst this afternoon, sending water spilling across several floors of the theater, we’re told. A clean-up is underway and the theater is hoping to reopen tomorrow (Thursday).

The water also impacted elevators in the mall building.

“Please be advised this afternoon, the sprinkler pipe broke in the Ballston Mall movie theatre and water is going into the freight elevator,” said a memo sent to workers in the offices above the mall. “As of right now, all elevators are out of service.”

Burst water pipes have plagued homes and businesses across Arlington this week, as temperatures dipped into the teens and single digits. The Trader Joe’s store in Clarendon reopened this morning after a burst water pipe last night. Also last night, the Doorways Family Home in North Arlington, which houses homeless families and victims of domestic violence, was closed when “a sprinkler head in a second floor ceiling burst due to freezing conditions” and flooded the floors down to the basement.

The women and children who were in the home were evacuated to hotels. Restoration crews worked today to make the house habitable again.

Morning Notes

By Katie Pyzyk

Icy: Four Mile Run in Arlington Virginia (Flickr pool photo by @ddimick)

Fisette Staying Out of Confederate Name Issue — Arlington County Board Chairman Jay Fisette said he has too much other business to worry about in the coming months to get involved with the request to remove the name “Jefferson Davis” from Arlington roads. Fisette says he’s sensitive to the reasons behind the request to remove the Confederate leader’s name, but the process for removal is laborious and has to go through the state. [Sun Gazette]

Burst Pipe at Reagan National Airport — Trader Joe’s in Clarendon certainly wasn’t the only business affected by a burst water pipe during Tuesday’s cold weather. Some pipes burst at Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon and flooded the area near the baggage claim terminals for American Airlines and United Airlines. [DCist]

Tomb Sentinels Brave Freezing Temps — Most people did what they could to bundle up and stay indoors yesterday, but members of The Old Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery are getting attention for braving the bitter cold. The 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment posted a photo of one of the sentinels on its Facebook page and news organizations immediately spread the word. [WTOP, WUSA]

Flickr pool photo by @ddimick

Broken Water Pipe Closes Clarendon Trader Joe’s

By ARLnow.com

Broken water pipe at Trader Joe's in Clarendon Broken water pipe at Trader Joe's in Clarendon

Update at 10:00 a.m. — The store is back open, a tipster tells us.

The Clarendon Trader Joe’s store (1109 N. Highland Street) was closed tonight after a water pipe burst near the entrance.

The incident happened between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. The burst pipe also set off the fire alarm, prompting a response from the Arlington County Fire Department. Water gushed out onto the sidewalk in front of the store and also flooded part of the store.

The water on the sidewalk quickly turned to a sheet of ice. Firefighters cordoned off the area with caution tape to prevent pedestrians from slipping and falling. Employees, meanwhile, could be seen trying to mop up water inside the store.

Trader Joe’s was closed during the clean-up. No word yet on when it will reopen.

Numerous burst pipes have been reported around Arlington today (Tuesday), the apparent result of the frigid temperatures.

Weather Causing Meter Malfunctions, Parking Enforcement Suspended

By Katie Pyzyk

Arlington County multi-space parking meterFor one day only, drivers parking in Arlington are getting a reprieve. Because the frigid temperatures are a danger to enforcement workers and because the weather is causing an increase in meter malfunctions, meters will not be enforced.

The Department of Environmental Services maintains the county’s meters and reports this week’s colder weather and last week’s freezing precipitation led to a higher than usual number of malfunctions on the multi-space meters that dispense tickets. An average day typically requires around 15 repairs throughout the county. However, there were 29 repairs last Thursday, 76 on Friday and 61 yesterday.

DES also has received a higher volume of calls to the broken meter hotline (703-228-3298). Instead of the usual 40 calls per day, 90 came in on Friday and 117 came in on Saturday and Monday. DES does not yet have a tally for today, but anticipates similar numbers.

The multi-space meters have a wireless connection that automatically informs DES of any malfunctions, but the department relies on phone calls for learning about problems with coin operated meters.

Although DES maintains the meters, members of the Arlington County Police Department take care of enforcement. In light of the issues today, the department decided to suspend meter enforcement.

“Enforcement has been suspended due to a combination of the extreme cold weather creating a danger to public service aides, and the growing number of malfunctioning meters,” said ACPD spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. “That’s just for today.”

Campbell Elementary Evacuated Due to Report of Smoke

By ARLnow.com

Arlington County fire truckCampbell Elementary School (737 S. Carlin Springs Road) was briefly evacuated this afternoon due to a fire investigation.

Fire department personnel were dispatched to the school just after 1:00 p.m. for a report of smoke and an electrical smell. Students and staff were evacuated and spent time in the frigid outdoors while firefighters investigated.

No fire was found at the school, and a mechanical issue was suspected, according to fire department spokeswoman Lt. Sarah Marchegiani. Students and staff were able to reenter an unaffected area of the school once it was determined that there was no fire.

Cold Weather Causing Stress on Power Grid

By Katie Pyzyk

Thermostat(Updated at 2:55 p.m.) The cold temperatures have a lot of people cranking up the heat, but that’s putting stress on the region’s power grid. Dominion Power is asking customers to reduce any unnecessary use of electricity and alter the hours for major appliance use.

Dominion is one of the power providers in the 13 states and District of Columbia that use the PJM Interconnect power grid. PJM informed all of its clients that the power grid is currently under stress because of the increase in electric heat use due to the frigid temperatures. It’s asking customers to help conserve energy.

“We are asking customers to consider altering their normal pattern of power usage to mitigate the draw that is on the electrical grid right now,” said Dominion Power spokesman Chuck Penn. “We are confident today, as we were yesterday, that we have sufficient power capacity to meet the demand, there are just some steps utilities are asking customers to take to ease the load. We are just responding to the request from PJM Interconnect.”

Customers are asked to avoid using major appliances — such as stoves, dishwashers and clothes dryers — during the peak morning hours of 6:00-9:00 a.m. and the peak evening hours of 3:00-7:00 p.m. Customers are asked to lower their thermostats to between 65 and 70 degrees during the day in order to conserve energy. Dominion has additional energy saving tips on its website.

Arlington’s Emergency Winter Shelter in Courthouse (2049 15th Street N.) opened for around-the-clock services on Monday and will stay open, as a wind chill advisory remains in effect until 6:00 p.m. The shelter has been used by 75 people during the cold snap, and another 10 were provided with cots and blankets in the lobby of the nearby Detention Center. On Tuesday afternoon, DHS made the decision to keep the shelter open continuously on Wednesday as well.

“The good thing about this cold snap is that we had plenty of advance warning so we were able to let people know they needed to get off the streets and come inside,” said Department of Human Services spokesman Kurt Larrick. “A-SPAN did a great job of letting unsheltered homeless people in the community know that it was going to get really, really cold, and that we would have a warm bed for them.”

APS to Open Two Hours Late Tuesday

By ARLnow.com

Arlington Public Schools will open on a two hour delay Tuesday morning due to the extreme cold.

APS sent the following email to families Monday evening.

Dear APS Families:

The National Weather Service (NWS) is warning of possible high winds and low wind chill temperatures across parts of Northern Virginia today through Tuesday night.  As a result, Arlington Public Schools will open two hours late on Tuesday, January 7. The Extended Day Program will also open two hours late, and morning field trips will be cancelled. The Community Centers located in schools and the Pools will open at their regular times.

The Arlington County Department of Public Health encourages everyone to protect themselves against serious health problems that can result from prolonged exposure to the cold. When exposed to cold temperatures, your body begins to lose heat faster than it can be produced, causing cold-weather health problems such as frostbite and hypothermia.

What can you do?

  • Wear cold weather appropriate clothing like gloves/mittens, hats, scarves and snow boots. Dress in several layers of loose-fitting clothing and cover your face and mouth if possible.
  • Be aware of the wind chill factor. Wind can cause body-heat loss.
  • Stay dry, and if you become wet, remove any wet clothing immediately.
  • Limit your time outdoors.
  • Do not ignore shivering. It’s an important first sign that the body is losing heat. Persistent shivering is a signal to return indoors.

Additional information on dealing with extreme cold is available from the Arlington County Public Health Department webpage at http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/HumanServices/PublicHealth/page91183.aspx; from the Virginia Department of Health at http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/weather/ColdWeatherSafety.htm; and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/guide.asp.

Emergency Shelter to Stay Open During Icy Weather

By Ethan Rothstein
1/3

Arlington’s Emergency Winter Shelter is now open, and will remain open continuously until the oncoming arctic cold front, expected to bring temperatures down to the single digits with a wind chill below zero degrees Fahrenheit, passes after tomorrow night.

The shelter, at 2049 15th Street N. in Courthouse, has capacity for 73 homeless clients, according to spokesman Jan-Michael Sacharko of the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network (A-SPAN), which operates the shelter. However, it can provide some overflow shelter, if need be, and can send up to 15 people to the Residential Program Center on Columbia Pike.

“Temperatures are expected to drop overnight Monday to single digits,” Arlington Department of Human Services Director Susanne Eisner said in a press release. “We urge anyone who is on the streets — and anyone who knows someone who has no place to shelter from these life-threatening weather conditions — to come to the Emergency Winter Shelter.”

Normally the shelter is open from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. daily. Sacharko said the decision was reached on Friday to keep the shelter open round-the-clock Monday and Tuesday, and since then A-SPAN has been performing outreach to try to get people off the streets and out of danger.

“All last week and at our weekend service sites, outreach staff were informing clients on the street and at the shelter that we would be open those days and that a severe cold front was coming,” Sacharko said. “We’ve been attempting to spread the word today as well with our outreach staff. They regularly do go looking for people to bring services to every day.”

Terrance Toussaint, the director the emergency shelter, said he expects about 10-12 more people will spend the next two nights at the shelter above the usual 70 or so clients. The increase would be higher, he said, if there weren’t other shelters in the area also open to the homeless. Toussaint said he’s satisfied that as many endangered people as possible have heard the message about the impending cold.

“The folks who you’ll still see on the street, they want to be on the street,” he told ARLnow.com. “That could be for mental health reasons, or some are chronic homeless who are hardcore and prefer to camp out. One or two of those will come in tonight.”

Outreach workers for A-SPAN will still try to serve those individuals, bringing them extra coats and blankets and hot soup, Toussaint said, while doing their best to convince them to come in from the cold.

Wind Chill Advisory Issued as Arlington Braces for Cold

By ARLnow.com

A Wind Chill Advisory has been issued Arlington and the surrounding region.

The advisory is in effect starting at midnight tonight. The National Weather Service says temperatures will gradually fall throughout the day, bottoming out in the single digits tonight.

With wind gusts up to 35 miles per hour expected into tomorrow, forecasters say wind chills will reach dangerously low levels that could lead to frostbite and hypothermia.

… WIND CHILL ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM EST TUESDAY…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON HAS ISSUED A WIND CHILL ADVISORY… WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM EST TUESDAY.

* WIND CHILL… 5 BELOW TO 15 BELOW ZERO.

* TIMING… TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY. THE LOWEST WIND CHILLS ARE EXPECTED TO OCCUR AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING.

* TEMPERATURES… FALLING INTO THE TEENS THIS EVENING… THEN LOWS IN THE SINGLE DIGITS TONIGHT AND HIGHS IN THE TEENS TUESDAY.

* WINDS… WEST 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 35 MPH.

* IMPACTS… DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILLS COULD THEN LEAD TO FROSTBITE AND HYPOTHERMIA MONDAY EVENING THROUGH TUESDAY.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. THIS WILL RESULT IN FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS… MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES.

Wind Advisory Issued as Bitter Cold, Snow Moves In

By ARLnow.com

The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory for Arlington and the D.C. region Friday.

Wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour are expected to combine with temperatures between 14 and 21 degrees for a bitterly cold Friday. Meanwhile, snow is currently moving in to the area, as forecasters are calling for about an inch of accumulation in Arlington through Friday morning.

The wind advisory from NWS is below.

…WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO NOON EST FRIDAY…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON HAS ISSUED A WIND ADVISORY…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO NOON EST FRIDAY.

* TIMING…LATE TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING.

* WINDS…NORTHWEST 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS AROUND 50 MPH.

* IMPACTS…SCATTERED TREE AND POWER LINE DAMAGE. DIFFICULTY DRIVING HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT WIND GUSTS OF 45 TO 55 MPH ARE EXPECTED. SECURE OUTDOOR FURNITURE AND TAKE CARE DRIVING HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES.

AAA Mid-Atlantic is warning drivers to prepare for the extreme cold.

“Extreme temperature shifts are hard on your vehicle, so don’t get caught off guard by the coming winter weather,” said AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson. “Drivers should make sure their vehicles are prepared with proper levels of antifreeze, a strong battery, and plenty of windshield washer fluid. Also keep an emergency kit in the trunk should you run into any problems during your commute.”