(Updated at 4:00 p.m.) A large tree has fallen and damaged a home on the 3800 block of North Vernon Street, in the Old Glebe neighborhood.
The falling tree took utility lines down with it. Dominion Power has shut down power to the lines and has a crew on the scene.
A number of incidents of downed trees and power lines have been reported around Arlington today as a result of the high winds.
Arlington County issued the following alert this morning:
Arlington County is currently experiencing intermittent problems with the 9-1-1 system. If you call 9-1-1 and can’t get through, immediately call 703-741-3035.
A supervisor at the county’s Emergency Communications Center said she was not sure when 911 service would be back to normal.
Update at 12:25 p.m. — “This is a Verizon issue,” said Debbie Powers, Deputy Coordinator for the Arlington’s Office of Emergency Management. “It’s a regional issue and it’s intermittent.”
Update at 1:35 p.m. — Verizon tells Arlington’s Office of Emergency Management that the 911 system is now functioning normally, according to OEM’s Brian Geraci.
Update at 3:10 p.m. — Verizon spokesman Harry J. Mitchell says that the outage, which affected cell phone calls to 911, was due to a faulty piece of equipment at the company’s Fairfax switching center.
At this point it appears that a Verizon service issue starting around 9:10 a.m. affected customers primarily in Arlington and Fairfax counties. It appears that a faulty piece of equipment in Verizon’s Fairfax switching center caused the service issue.
Calls to 911 from Internet-based phones and landline phones served by the Arlington and Fairfax 911 centers were automatically redirected to these 911 centers via an alternate path in the Verizon network. The equipment failure, however, may have intermittently affected wireless calls to 911 in Arlington and Fairfax counties. This is still under investigation.
The faulty equipment was restored to normal operation around 11:30 a.m., and we continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure the issue is completely resolved.
This issue is unrelated to the 911 issues triggered by storm-related mass call events earlier this year.
(Updated at 2:15 p.m.) Arlington will be missing out on an expected revenue windfall due to a software error.
Last month Arlington sent Falls Church a notice that it could owe an additional $2.2 million for use of the Arlington County Detention Facility. At the time, the county said a “clerical error” resulted in Falls Church being undercharged for the housing of prisoners. Falls Church even admitted that it owed the money, according to the Washington Examiner.
Now, the county says “an outside contractor’s software error” resulted in an over-count of Falls Church prisoners. Falls Church only owes Arlington $123,000, the county said in a statement last night.
“Arlington County regrets the error and the difficulties that it posed for the City as it develops its FY 2012 Budget,” Arlington said. “The Arlington County Sheriff’s Department will now report monthly on Falls Church prisoners. The report and applicable prisoner data will be shared with the Falls Church Sheriff for verification.”
The county’s contract for judicial, police and fire department services is up for renewal this year. Arlington says it will renegotiate the contract “to reflect changes in technology, procedures and services that have occurred since 1989, when the City of Falls Church first contracted with Arlington County to provide the City with judicial and public safety services.”
The Arlington County Fire Department has quite a few positions to fill over the next year. Luckily, it has no shortage of applicants for those positions.
We’re told that about 800 people applied for ACFD’s latest recruitment class. Of those, several hundred are being invited to participate in a physical abilities test.
A recruitment class is expected to start at the training academy in June. Another recruitment class is expected to begin immediately after the first graduates in November. All told, the fire department expects to make 40 new hires this year.
(Updated at 4:10 p.m.) Arlington County wants to put residents on a car-free diet, but a spat over on-street parking in Lyon Park shows that residents with cars still have plenty of pull with the county board.
The county’s streets bureau, responding to a complaint from a trash collector, determined that a curvy, two-block stretch of North Edgewood Street is too narrow. With cars parked on either side, firefighters brought in to test the width did not have enough room to open the bins on either side of their fire engine.
Acting upon the results of the test, the streets bureau sent notice to residents that they were planning on restricting parking to one side of the street. But residents fought back and, this weekend, seemed to get some cover from the county board.
Lyon Park Civic Association President Natalie Roy spoke before the board and asked why the county has not found fault with the street’s width until now. She said that elderly residents whose houses lack driveways rely on street parking. Residents tried to create an alternative plan for dealing with the situation, she added, but that county staff made “Draconian” changes to it.
Most board members were sympathetic to the parking concerns.
“The fire truck can be a once in several year occurrence,” said County Board Vice Chair Mary Hynes. “I don’t want a solution for the once every five year event. I want solutions that make livability on this street reasonable.”
“If safety is such a priority, why do we wait until a complaint?” board member Jay Fisette asked, pointing out that there are plenty of other county streets that could potentially be considered too narrow.
District Taco (5723 Lee Highway) hopes to have a permit to serve beer in time for some warm-weather cerveza drinking.
The popular new restaurant just applied for an ABC license from the state.
“We think it’s going to be a couple of months” until the license is granted, District Taco founder Osiris Hoil said. “We hope to have it by the summer.”
“A lot of people are asking for it,” Hoil added. “Our salsa makes people sweat… it would really go well with some beer.”
Hoil says he’ll keep the beer list small so that that he can keep the beer as fresh as possible. Among the brews he plans to serve are Negra Modelo, Modelo Especial, Pacifico, Sol, Corona and Tecate — all Mexican beers.
“No Coors Light,” Hoil said with a laugh.
Meanwhile, District Taco is offering special deals for public safety and military personnel. The restaurant is offering 50 percent off for police and firefighters and a free drink for members of the military.
(Updated at 4:10 p.m.) Residents in some parts of Arlington woke up to the smell of sewer natural gas.
Many called the fire department to report the gas smell, which the county’s Department of Environmental Services says is an issue that Washington Gas is investigating.
According to DES, the smell was reported in Fairfax County, Northwest D.C. and as far away as West Virginia.
Want to learn how to help your neighbors, co-workers or family in an emergency? If so, Arlington will be offering free emergency response training in March.
The training is part of the county’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program.
Recent news and weather headlines illustrate the importance of being prepared for and able to respond to all kinds of emergencies. That’s what Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training is all about. This eight-session course, sponsored by the Arlington County Citizen Corps Council, Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and Fire Department (ACFD), covers disaster preparedness, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, team organization, disaster psychology, fire suppression and terrorism. It follows a FEMA/DHS curriculum being used around the globe.
To-date, over 480 individuals have completed CERT training in Arlington County. It is open to Arlington residents – and those who work in the County but reside elsewhere — who are at least 18 years of age (16 if accompanied by at least one parent) and able to participate in all aspects of the training, some of which requires lifting and carrying. The training is free, but participants are expected to acquire certain supplies themselves, many of which you probably already have on-hand. All classes meet at the Arlington County Fire Department (ACFD) Training Academy in Shirlington and are taught by ACFD and OEM staff and CERT members. Neighboring jurisdictions also offer CERT training for their residents.
Some complete this training simply to be safer in their own homes and workplaces. Others choose to complete additional requirements necessary to become active members of neighborhood teams trained to assist in major disasters. All help make Arlington County a safer place to live, work and play!
Spring CERT classes are scheduled to begin on March 16 and 22 and there are seats available in both that will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Advance registration is required. If you’d like additional information or would like to sign up, please contact the program’s volunteer coordinator, Cynthia Kellams, at [email protected].
It has been about 16 hours since the snow stopped falling, yet firefighters are still responding to non-stop calls of wires and trees down around the county. The workload speaks to just how widespread the damage from last night’s snow storm really was.
Dominion has been out in force, working furiously to restore service to the thousands of customers who lost power last night. As of 3:45 p.m., the number without power in Arlington has been cut to 6,700 — down from 16,700 last night.
Most Dominion customers in Arlington should have their power restored at some point tonight. Still, Dominion says 10 percent of affected customers will have to wait until Friday night for the lights to come back on. And the company doesn’t expect to have power restored to all Northern Virginia customers until Saturday.
“We have about 2,000 workers engaged in our restoration effort, including crews from Eastern and Central Virginia and North Carolina assisting in Northern Virginia,” Dominion executive Rodney Blevins said in a statement. “Please stay clear of downed lines and use extreme caution if you must be on the roads where snow, abandoned vehicles and downed trees could be affecting traffic patterns.”
More than 300 bucket trucks are working to restore power to the nearly 192,000 Northern Virginia customers who lost power last night, Dominion said.
The county board has approved two projects designed to improve traffic flow and reduce emergency response times.
The board awarded a $651,000 contract to install an emergency vehicle preemption system along the entire Arlington stretch of Lee Highway. The system will allow emergency vehicles to get an automatic green light at approaching intersections, thus reducing travel times and enhancing safety.
“Emergency vehicle preemption technology is critical to saving lives by giving responders safe, speedy passage through intersections and cutting precious minutes off the time it takes to get patients to life-saving care at a hospital,” Arlington Fire Chief James Schwartz said in a statement.
The board also awarded a $4.7 million contract to install six miles of fiber optic line. The line will run from Rosslyn to Ballston, down Glebe Road and along the eastern end of Columbia Pike. It’s part of a larger, $20 million project to upgrade the county’s communication and traffic management systems.
The fiber line will connect 54 county traffic signals and will allow for the installation of additional traffic monitoring cameras and motorist information signs.
“Arlington’s dense urban corridors require a modern system that offers greater efficiency and flexibility for monitoring traffic, operating signals, and providing real time driver information,” said William O’Connor, Director of Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services. “Expanding and enhancing the system will help ensure that the Arlington streets operate as seamlessly and safely as possible both day-to-day and during emergency situations.”
The fiber line will replace an aging copper line as well as lines leased from Comcast.
“Built in the early 1980s, the County’s current communications network lacks the speed and capacity to meet present and future demands, and is nearing the end of its useful life,” the county noted in a press release. “It consists of outdated and increasingly unreliable twisted pair (copper) cables and a leased private network.”
Chesapeake Electrical Systems has been chosen as the contractor on both projects, which are expected to take six to eight months to complete. The work is being paid for with a combination of federal and local funds.
Flickr pool photo by Chris Rief
Chain Bridge Road is expected to remain shut down for the next half an hour as firefighters work to rescue a man trapped in a van that knocked over a utility pole.
Initial reports suggest the driver of a delivery van knocked over a utility pole while backing out of a driveway on the 100 block of Chain Bridge Road, just north of Chain Bridge. Live power lines fell on the van, trapping the driver inside.
Firefighters are now working to free the man.
Police have shut down the road between North Glebe Road and the Fairfax County line. The road should open up shortly after the rescue is completed.
Update at 1:30 p.m. — The rescue is complete and power has been shut off to the power lines. A lane closure may remain as Dominion installs a new utility pole.
