News: Tornado Watch and High Wind Advisory for Area Tonight

(Oct. 26, 2010) - The deadly storm that hit the Midwest is headed Loudoun's way with a tornado watch in affect until 3 a.m. as well as a high wind advisory for the area.

Football: Stone Bridge Postpones Tonight's Freshman and JV Games

(Oct. 14, 2010) - Due to the inclement weather Stone Bridge High School has postponed tonight's Freshman/JV Football games. The games have been rescheduled for Monday, October 18, at Stone Bridge High School. The Freshman Football game will start at 6 p.m. and JV will follow at 7:30.

Breaking News! VHSL Postpones Boys Lacrosse Semifinals Until Thursday

(June 10, 2010) - The VHSL boys state semifinal lacrosse games scheduled for today at Westfield High School have been postponed until Thursday due to the rain.

Loudoun Valley will play Brooke Point at 5 p.m. followed by Woodson vs. Langley at 7:30 p.m.

Storm Brings Record Rainfall; Traffic Snarled

Power is gradually being restored to communities impacted by the strong thunderstorms Wednesday evening that brought heavy rain, hail and winds as high as 60 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service reports that 2.17 inches of rain fell in Pittsburgh yesterday breaking the old record for June 2nd of 1.05 inches set in 1946.
A tornado warning was issued for Allegheny, Beaver and Washington Counties but there was no confirmation of a funnel cloud touching down.
Duquesne light says as of 9 o'oclock this morning they had 4,500 customers without power, down from a high of 13,000. A spokesman says they expect power to be completely restored by midnight. The hardest hit areas are Beaver Falls, Munhall, New Brighton, New Homestead and Scott Township.
Allegheny Power had about 300 customers without service in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The storm knocked out power inside the Fort Pitt Tunnels. Traffic inbound on the Parkway West is backed from the tunnels to Interstate 79. The electronic message signs and 71 traffic cameras were knocked out of service. PennDOT spokesman Jim Struzzi says they can't alert motorists to the backups or even to turn on their vehicle lights as they approach the darkened tunnel. Struzzi says there is no estimate as to when the lights will be on again because they are having difficulty locating the source of the outage.

News: Looks Like We Dodged the Snow but Here Come the Winds

The National Weather Service reports a High Wind Watch for Northern Virginia:

Description: HIGH WIND WATCH IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON

STRONG WINDS WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE MID ATLANTIC TONIGHT AND FRIDAY. NORTHWEST WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH MAY GUST TO 60 MPH OVERNIGHT AND FRIDAY. WINDS THIS STRONG WILL CAUSE DANGEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS...AND MAY KNOCK DOWN TREES AND

Snow Removal Town Hall Meeting

A state politician is holding a town hall meeting on Thursday for concerned residents who want to better address the Pittsburgh snow removal issues.
Representative Chelsa Wagner, of Allegheny County, wants to hear from those who still have issues with the roadways, and also, suggestions on how these problems can be better remedied in the future. She says she’s heard many different complaints about the poor conditions at her office, and many of those concerns have been addressed. However, there are still problems that remain. For instance, snow blocking lanes of traffic, without any given warning. Also, there is still an issue with some right of way crosswalks that have not been cleared for pedestrians.
Wagner says she invited the mayor to attend, although she has not heard a response. Officials from Pittsburgh Public Works declined the invitation to join.
The meeting will be held on Feb. 25, at St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, on 933 Brookline Blvd. at 6:30 p.m.

News: So You Finally Cleared Your Driveway ... Winter Storm Watch for Late Wednesday into Thursday

WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT.

* PRECIPITATION TYPE...SNOW.
* ACCUMULATIONS...POTENTIAL FOR SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 OR MORE INCHES.
* TIMING...A MIX OF RAIN AND SNOW WEDNESDAY

Cities, Towns Get Earlier Help for Snow Costs

The state will release so-called "liquid fuel payments" to Pennsylvania municipalities beginning March 1....a month ahead of schedule....to ease the burden of winter storm cleanup costs. Governor Ed Rendell issued a disaster emergency declaration that allows PennDOT to send out $308 million to 2,556 local governments..."this winter has placed significant demands on the resources of both PennDOT and its partners in local government. The early release of these funds will help local governments to pay some bills a little bit earlier."

Liquid fuels allocations are annual payments issued to municipalities to help pay for transportation-related expenses, including snow removal and related materials costs. The funds are generated from a portion of the state gasoline tax and from Act 44.
Rendell says due to its own tight budget, the state can't provide additional monies but PennDOT will be available to help communities in distress...."whether we bill them or not depends.....we'll try to be cognizant of the municipalities' financial difficulties when we make that decision."
Rendell says he anticipates the state filing a request by early March for a disaster declaration to receive federal aid for the storm-related costs. New rules by the Federal Emergency Management Agency require that counties to be eligible to have received a record nor near record snow fall with a 48 hour period. One factor that could hurt Pennsylvania's chances for getting federal aid is that the two snow storms were about 72 hours apart. The total accumulation from the 2 storms did set a snow fall record.

Army Corps Ready for Flooding

Local Army Corps of Engineers officials say they will update state and local emergency agencies on the status of waterways in the region when the record February snowfall begins to melt.

Chief of the Readiness Office T.J. Fichera says the Corps communicates with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service, and county emergency agencies to prepare for possible floods.

Fichera says one example of the things they’re telling these agencies is that certain high-altitude reservoirs like the Youghiogheny, Tiger, and Stonewall Jackson Reservoirs have the capacity to take in a good deal of snowmelt because of their elevation.

Chief of the Corps’ Water Management Branch Werner Loehlein says we have yet to see a significant snowmelt, meaning that most of the water stored in the snowfall is still there.

Loehlein says the snow only looks like it has melted because sunshine melts the top layer, which compacts the snow beneath it.

The hydrologist says there is still potential for flooding, especially if temperatures rise quickly and it also rains. He says the Monongahela River’s tributaries are at the most risk, including the Youghiogheny and Cheat Rivers.

Flooding Unlikely During Snowmelt

National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Reed says it’s too early to say how quickly the snow accumulated during the past few weeks will melt.

Reed says high temperatures this weekend will reach the upper 30's.

“Certainly we would like a slow, orderly melt,” says Reed. “The ideal situation there would be not much rain on top of it, and just warm enough temperatures to melt it a little during the day, and then cooling down at night to slow down the process a little bit.”

Reed says the soil had absorbed much water previous to the heavy snows, and that has already frozen, so the ground wouldn’t absorb much moisture when the snow melts.

Reed says flooding would only happen if it both rained and temperatures became abnormally warm, into the 50 and 60 degrees range. He says then, the snowmelt would “run off” in the equivalent of two to three inches of rain.

Emergency Protocol Changed, After Hazelwood Death

Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Michael Huss says emergency protocol has been changed as of midnight last night. That’s due to an incident in Hazelwood where 50 Year old Curtis Mitchell died after he and his wife made several emergency phone calls over a two-day period without emergency crews ever arriving until after his death. An EMS crew became stuck on the snowy roads during the storm of February 5-6 and an operator asked Sharon Edge if she could get Mitchell to the ambulance 4 blocks away. She said "no" because he was in too much pain. The dispatcher then canceled the call.
Ron Roth, the medical director for the public safety department, says the situation was made more complicated because each call from Mitchell and Edge was considered a separate request for help and information from the previous calls to 9-1-1 was not made available to the operator taking the most recent call. There are three emergency priority categories that will be altered. They are now going to send first responders to all E-0 calls, which is the most serious category that’s usually life-threatening. Fire fighters will now be responding to E-1 calls, which are things like shortness of breath. If any call that’s categorized as E-2 does not get a response within 30 minutes, a first responder will come. Huss says the purpose of this is to get someone to a site as quickly as possible. The Hazelwood man who died originally was categorized as an E-2 call because of abdominal pain. Huss says this new system will hopefully prevent an event like this from happening again.
Also, the Allegheny County Health Department will be thoroughly reviewing the situation in Hazelwood.

9-1-1 Procedures to Change

Pittsburgh officials say they are changing how emergency calls are handled after a man died in his home during a snow storm while waiting for an ambulance despite repeated 9-1-1 calls. Public safety Director Michael Huss apologized to relatives of 50 year old Curtis Mitchell of Hazelwood. Mitchell and his wife, Sharon Edge, started calling 9-1-1 Friday February 5 when a storm dumped 21 inches of snow on the city. But the ambulance could not make it to their home due to the heavy snow. Edge says emergency workers asked the couple if they could walk four blocks to reach the ambulance but he was in too much pain. So the 9-1-1 operator canceled the dispatch. Mitchell died Sunday morning February 7. Huss called the handling of the situation "unacceptable." He said EMS protocol is going to change so that every call will now have a first responder arriving at the person's door.

Probe Into Why Pittsburgh Man Died Awaiting EMS

Pittsburgh City officials have reviewed how 9-1-1 calls were handled when a man died at his home while waiting for an ambulance during a heavy snow storm that began February 5th. 50 year old Curtis Mitchell of Hazelwood died two days later. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner has yet to release a cause of death because toxicology tests from his autopsy are still pending. City officials say dispatchers handled more emergency calls than normal during the storm and are trying to determine whether communication problems along with poor road conditions contributed to the delayed response by paramedics.
The city of Pittsburgh issued a statement today under the names of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Emergency Medical Services Chief Robert McCaughan expressing their "deepest condolences to the family in the loss of their loved one."

The statement went on to say they are trying to identify areas of potential improvement and are dedicated to making the changes that might be necessary to improve the delivery of service.

Dr. Ron Roth, Medical Director of the city's Department of Public Safety and the County's Emergency Operations Center, reviewed 4 calls made to 9-1-1 from a home at 5161 Chaplain Way between 2:09 a.m. Saturday February 6 and 7:56 a.m. February 7.
Roth says the first two calls were processed as medium priority for abdominal pain. He says the third call was upgraded after additional information was received. The review indicates a more than 9 hour delay from the time of the third call and the dispatch of an EMS crew. Dr. Roth says unfortunately "what appeared to be underappreciated by some parties is the fact that this was the third request for service by the same person for the same complaint. In addition, most if not all, were unaware of the details of the previous call."
The review say on three separate calls, EMS is dispatched to 5161 Chaplain Way. Each time the paramedics are told to cancel by the Emergency Operating Center. The paramedics were not privy to the conversations between the operators and the callers or the details from previous events. "It was reasonable to ask the caller to walk to the ambulance (which was stuck in the snow) on the first call. It is not reasonable to ask the caller to walk to the truck on subsequent calls after he refused on the first call."

City Says It's Ready for Round 3

Public Works crews in the city of Pittsburgh are ready for the third snow storm to hit the region in 10 days. 3 to 6 inches of snow is expected in the Pittsburgh area by Tuesday afternoon and 4 to 10 inches in other parts of southwestern Pennsylvania, with the highest amounts in the ridges.
Pittsburgh Public Works Director Rob Kaczorowski says they pre-treated the main roads and will work in two-12 hour shifts with 53 vehicles plowing and salting beginning with primary streets. Kaczorowski says they are equipped to handle 6 to 10 inches of snow, even up to 12 inches. He says one challenge is where to put this new snow and yesterday they were able to reduce some of the snow mounds. "We are using all of our resources to battle this next snow event. After this storm, we will remove the piles of snow in business districts and residential streets."

South Side Building Roof Collapse

Another roof collapse....this time in an empty building on Pittsburgh's South Side. The Neville Ice Arena, which has been vacant since 2001, has collapsed under the weight of the snow buildup. Public Works Director Rob Kaczorowski says the building was similar in design to the Rostraver Ice Garden. That Rostraver Township facility sustained a partial roof collapse yesterday afternoon in between games of a youth hockey tournament. Everyone inside escaped safely. The cause of the roof collapse has not been determined but a fire official says the buildup of snow and ice may have contributed to it.
Kaczorowski says the heavy wet snow combined with no heat inside apparently led to the collapse of the former Neville Ice Arena. He said public safety and the Bureau of Building Inspection are expected to recommend the building be demolished and removed.

CMU Prof: Pgh. Roofs Can Withstand the Snow

Despite the roof collapse of the Rostraver Ice Garden Sunday, a Carnegie Mellon University professor says locals shouldn’t worry about the safety of their own buildings.

Engineering Professor Irving Oppenheim says the structures in and around Pittsburgh are designed to withstand as much as three feet of snow. He says until the buildup of snow reaches four or five feet, residents need not worry about their roofs caving in.

Oppenheim says even the older structures of the city are capable of holding up, as evidenced by their survival over the decades.

He says he advises strongly against climbing onto a roof to extract snow by hand.

The CMU professor says the relatively small number of collapsed roofs among the hundreds of thousands of structures is a testament to the sturdiness of Pittsburgh’s buildings.

School Districts Running Low on Snow......Days

Although school districts are starting to get back to normal, many, if not most, have used up the snow days that were built into their academic calendars. That means they will have to convert school holidays or in-service days into classroom days to meet the state-mandated 180 class days by June 30th. If they are unable to meet the deadline, districts can apply for a waiver from the state.
Michael Race, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, says typically school districts have calendars that end in mid-June "so there is a little bit of a buffer toward the end of June to add days to the calendar."
Race says most districts have contingency plans "but when you get into a large number of snow days, it becomes an issue of fitting in the 180 days. But the 180 day rule remains in effect regardless of the weather conditions we may have."
Race says waivers are not granted for the weather itself, but rather extenuating circumstances caused by the weather such as power outages at schools or the loss of heat which makes it "impossible or extremely inconvenient" to keep schools open

News: Loudoun Schools Will be One-Hour Delayed on Tuesday

(Feb. 12, 2010) - Loudoun County Public Schools will be one hour delayed on Tuesday Feb. 16 when the schools finally open after being shut down since Feb. 5 due to the back-to-back storms that dumped 40 inches of snow in the region.

Here is a letter from LCPS:
Hello. This is Superintendent Ed Hatrick calling to tell you that we are working to make our schools ready to re-open for students on

Blitz Continues in Pittsburgh Neighborhoods

City officials say neighborhood snow removal “blitzes” will continue throughout the Pittsburgh today and through the weekend as needed. Crews this afternoon are focused on the Regent Square, Point Breeze, and Beechview neighborhoods. Crews will also be working in all neighborhoods hitting streets that are in the worst condition, working from a list compiled from 3-1-1 calls and the police and fire bureau.
The 3-1-1 non-emergency citizens' helpline will remain open through the weekend from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Parking Authority will not be enforcing fees or citations on authority parking meters or surface lots until Tuesday.

Bureau of Building Inspectors are going through the city’s business districts advising business and building owners how to safely remove overhanging icicles.


An administration spokeswoman says refuse and recycling collections will resume their regular schedule Monday.

Federal Assistance is Uncertain

Dealing with 2 winter storms in the past week has caused municipalities and counties to rack up expenses for lots of overtime and contracting of private equipment. That doesn't include any damages to public infrastructure and buildings from the storms. However, Congressman Tim Murphy of Allegheny County says a change in FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) rules in November might block local governments from getting any federal disaster assistance because the snow did not fall all at once and the clean up costs were spread over several days. Murphy says he and members of Congress from other states blanketed by the snow are hoping to convince FEMA that while there were 2 storms, it was one incident because communities were still digging out from the weekend storm when the snow began again on Tuesday.
Murphy says the storm-related costs are hitting smaller communities particularly hard...
"Just to go out and hire someone to use a front end loader or a plow to do a road is a much larger percentage of an expense than it is for a city, particularly rural communities where they have long stretches of road where unless they were cleared, people were in absolute isolation for several days."
Murphy says that if FEMA doesn't provide assistance, the president could declare a "disaster" and he wishes that the president "would just do that."
Murphy says the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency is working with local governments to keep good records of expenses to submit to FEMA.