The impacts from Saturday’s severe storms were so widespread that Arlington County is still assessing damage.
Power has since been restored to the more than 34,000 Dominion customers in the dark after the storms, and the GW Parkway completed its reopening yesterday after crews removed hundreds of fallen and potentially hazardous trees. But other damage to both private and county property is still being addressed in Arlington.
(Updated at 4:05 p.m.) The herculean effort to clean up from Saturday’s storms and restore power to tens of thousands is continuing Monday morning.
The GW Parkway remains closed to most traffic between Spout Run Parkway and the Beltway — and is expected to remain closed until later this week, as crews work to clear a large number of downed trees and branches.
The cleanup from Saturday’s severe storms is continuing into Sunday.
As of 9 a.m., Dominion is reporting 20,394 customers still without power in Arlington. That’s down from more than 34,000 immediately after the storm. Arlington makes up about two thirds of the 31,603 outages Dominion is reporting across Northern Virginia.
The National Landing Business Improvement District and the group Friends of Mount Vernon Trail are teaming up to help maintain the heavily-used trail.
This includes financial support from the BID for supplies and equipment, and a series of Saturday clean-up events through Jan. 22.
By Lindsey Wray
Whether you’re spring cleaning or applying the popular KonMari method to your home, think twice before overloading your trash can with unwanted items. Arlington offers lots of options for disposing of things that no longer spark joy, and they have nothing to do with the landfill.
Volunteers with Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (ACE) will help pick up trash from the stream during the organization’s annual cleanup at Barcroft Park on Saturday, Sept. 17.
Those who sign up for the event will be tasked with removing debris from Barcroft Park and along the banks of Four Mile Run.
The Office of Personnel Management announced Monday night that federal offices would remain closed Tuesday, though “emergency and telework-ready employees required to work must follow their agency’s policies.”
Arlington County government offices, facilities and courts — with the exception of General District Court — are scheduled to reopen at noon on Tuesday.
This is the 27th year of the annual watershed cleanup. It’s coordinated all along the river, from West Virginia to the Chesapeake, by the Alice Ferguson Foundation. Last year, the cleanup day recovered 576,000 pounds of trash at 671 different sites. More than 14,000 volunteers participated.
Arlington’s contingent will meet Saturday, April 11 at 9:00 a.m. at the intersection of N. Glebe Road and Chain Bridge Road. The area is steep and rocky in spots, so ACE advises children younger than 10 years old to be left at home, and children younger than 16 to be accompanied by a parent.
As of 2:00 this (Friday) afternoon, 48 Dominion customers were without power. The company says that it expects all known power outages in the area to be restored by later tonight. According to Arlington officials, all county traffic signals are now functioning. Some 96 traffic signals were knocked out by Friday’s storms, largely due to power outages.
In a press release, the county noted that one of Arlington’s most historic trees was a victim of the storms. The Revolutionary War-era Post Oak (pictured), in the Westover area, is set to be cut down due to wind damage.
New Bikeshare Stations Coming to Pike, Trails — A new “Transit Development Plan” for Capital Bikeshare calls for new stations to be installed along Columbia Pike, in Shirlington, at the Pentagon, at Arlington National Cemetery and along the W&OD and Four Mile Run trails. Installation of most of the planned stations is expected to take place in 2013. [The Wash Cycle]
Southwest Comes to DCA — Southwest Airlines will begin operating its first scheduled service from Reagan National Airport on Sunday (July 8). The airline will be flying between DCA and Austin, Texas. [Sun Gazette]
As of 2:30 p.m., Dominion’s outage website showed 1,438 customers without power. That’s down from 3,960 at the same time yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon. Dominion reports it’s on track to have electricity restored to nearly all customers by Friday night.
“In a few instances, work in Northern Virginia may continue into Saturday where there was extreme damage,” said Rodney Blevins, Dominion vice president of Electric Distribution Operations, in a statement.
