Legalectric

Greetings from my office in Myre-Big Island State Park!  It’s the perfect place for a client meeting, and a meeting with a local attorney, drafting a Petition for Reconsideration… nothing like having a fully equipped office with wheels!  The downside is that there’s a season where it works, and a season where it doesn’t — for sure it does not work in the dead of winter.

We’re getting to the end of the season, it came to an end too quickly.  There was about an inch of snow here, it rained/sleeted/snowed all night Friday and all day Saturay.  Sunday morning people cleared out of here like it was on fire.  Our furnace and little heater kept up well, and one down comforter was sufficient!

Cooking was kinda rough the first two days, but washing dishes was worse!  Then today arrived and the sun was out and it was beautiful!

Sadie got to play with her “cousin” Sandie at the dog park two days running, and she was a happy, pooped, and socialist puppy!  They’re getting along quite well, but Sandie is… well… a PUPPY!  She’s now bigger than Sadie, plump and jiggly, whereas Sadie is for sure greyhound style.

Got to see little bro’s “new” house, and, well, it’s a good thing he didn’t get the first one he told me about down there, Hwy 13 in Hartland, right near Bernie and Cheryl Hagen and right in Bent Tree!  DON’T YOU DARE!  I sent Alan and Sadie out to play while I was writing, and there was some serious bonding going on the first day at the dog park and Home Depot.  A few mods to the camper, we now have two more stable tables, and a new outlet where the camper was designed for an air conditioner plug, so running little electric heater and oven or tea kettle at the same time is no problem.  One less thing to think about.  It was odd, there were two circuits, everything was on one, and nothing on the other, but all set up and ready to run, just needed an outlet. Who needs an air conditioner, particularly in a camper!  But we all need another outlet, eh?

Only one more meeting to go, and then homeward bound!

My world has turned black and white… here’s the view out the door, the tent for the airplane buckled this morning.  We had to go out and get fuel oil for the boiler and gas for the tractor and the roads haven’t been plowed from last weekend’s storm, and here we are now smack dab in the midst of another.  The governor has shut down the state, again… and meanwhile, tomorrow at 2 p.m. the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities is making its decision on the Susquehanna-Roseland, delayed from today because of the storm.  Well, it’s gonna be storming all day, so I don’t think that this one day will make a difference, other than those of us coming from a distance will probably have a harder time because they’ll be another foot and a half of snow.

Our little tent roof wasn’t the only one collapsing.  It could be a lot worse.   Schools, big boxes all over Delaware, and even the Townsend Fire Company roofs have collapsed:

Fair Use from The News Journal/ESTEBAN PARRA

Houses too:

And then there’s the Smithsonian warehouse:

… and more view out the window back door — those crab pots aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.  Just so that tree doesn’t come down on the van:

271,000 in the dark and growing

Snowball fights planned

Kady is from Georgia originally, though she spent almost a year on Long Island.  She does NOT like snow.  Today, Alan opened the door, and unlike Krie, she always calmly stands in the doorway and surveys her world, then CALMLY and SLOWLY walks down the stairs (what a dog!!).  Today, as she surveyed the world, she looked up with a big “WTF” look!

She went down the shoveled path and with some encouragement went into the snow, over her belly.  Some of the yard is almost bare, but some has pretty deep drifts, like 4′, and in the back corner up against the back door, all the windows have a curtain of snow, and the drift is 5-6 feet high.  Official tallies are 21″ in Newark (DE),  20″ in Wilmington, 18″ in Bear, New Castle Airport 18″, Dover 15″ — snowfall totals predicted is now up to 24.5″ for NEW CASTLE COUNTY< @&” for Kent Count and 27″ for Sussex… though it doesn’t seem like much deeper than a foot overall here.  It was very warm when it started so probably much of it melted.  The numbers for accumulated snow are much lower in the south end of the peninsula, and it was over 30 when this all started.

This will shut down Delaware for a month!  Time to underground those distribution lines, eh?  Here, I’ve

Snow piles up; trees down, power out

Power’s out just about everywhere:

CLICK HERE for Delaware Electric Cooperative map

CLICK HERE for Delmarva Power outage map

TIME TO UNDERGROUND THE DISTRIBUTION LINES!  Click on the Delmarva Power or DEC link, go to map and put cursor n location to see number of customers out of service.  What I don’t get is the areas where there are so many more customers out of service than they have customers.

The view out the office window about 9 a.m.:

And now look at it… a couple hours later ~ 1 p.m.m it’s coming down, heavy thick blobs of snow, and it’s coming down FAST, none of this “winter wonderland” routine, it’s intense:

State of Delaware
Executive Department
Dover

DECLARATION OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY
FOR THE STATE OF DELAWARE
DUE TO A SEVERE WINTER STORM

WHEREAS, a severe winter storm with significant snowfall accumulations expected in all three counties of the State of Delaware, and blizzard conditions expected in Kent and Sussex counties has begun; and

WHEREAS, the predicted weather will likely create dangerous and life-threatening conditions and result in additional public safety responses from treacherous road conditions in all or parts of each county; and

WHEREAS, the weather conditions have the potential to cause additional safety issues to our citizens as well as damage and destruction to property; and

NOW THEREFORE, I, JACK A. MARKELL, pursuant to Title 20, Chapter 31 of the Delaware Code, do hereby declare a State of Emergency for the entire State of Delaware. This State of Emergency is effective at February 5, 2010 at 8 p.m. E.S.T. and continuing until terminated as provided under state law. The nature of the emergency is heavy snowfall, potentially high winds, whiteout conditions and minor to moderate coastal flooding. Along with such other actions authorized by Title 20, Chapter 31 of the Delaware Code, I specifically direct and authorize:

1.All departments and agencies of the State of Delaware shall assist in response and recovery activities, as directed by and in coordination with the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, in consultation with the Secretary of Safety and Homeland Security, necessary in those areas affected by the storm.

2. As of 10 p.m. February 5, 2010 and until further notice, no motor vehicles are to be operated on any road in the state of Delaware, unless such vehicles are being operated by authorized personnel responding to the State of Emergency or other emergency situations. Essential personnel who are traveling to assigned work locations for critical facilities operating on a 24/7 basis are exempt from this order and must carry credentials identifying them as employees of such facility. Private sector businesses are strongly urged to consider the safety of their employees and the restriction of travel during the storm when deciding whether to remain operating.

3. In order to enforce paragraph 2 of this Order, state and local officials are directed to remove abandoned vehicles from roads in the State of Delaware at the expense of the vehicle owner.

4. The Delaware National Guard shall take precautionary or responsive actions directed by the Director of the Delaware Emergency Management Agency, in consultation with the Secretary of Safety and Homeland Security, upon request by local authorities.

5. Government entities subject to bidding requirements are exempted from those bidding requirements for the purpose of purchasing materials necessary for responding to this snow and wind emergency.

6. I authorize the Delaware Department of Transportation and the Delaware State Police, in consultation with the Delaware Emergency Management Agency and the Secretary of Safety and Homeland Security, to order such bridge and road closures as necessary to protect the health and safety of the public.

7. The Delaware Emergency Management Agency shall activate the State Emergency Operations Plan and cooperate with federal entities in making applications, if necessary, for relief and assistance for those towns and communities adversely affected by snow, winds and coastal flooding, pursuant to the State Emergency Operations Plan of the State of Delaware and any potentially applicable federal disaster or emergency relief laws, including, but not limited to, the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. The director of DEMA, or his designee, shall be the Governor’s Authorized Representative with respect to interaction with FEMA.

8. I reserve the right to take or direct state or local authorities to take, without issuance of further written order, any other necessary actions authorized by Title 20, Chapter 31 of the Delaware Code to respond to this emergency.

APPROVED this 5th day of February, 2010, at 4:45 p.m.
Jack A. Markell
Governor

SNORT!

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEWS JOURNAL SLIDE SHOW

If you’re from the Midwest, you’ll see why I don’t believe the hype.

Here’s a TRAFFIC CAM sort of near us.

There’s really no snow to speak of…  But what do they do in Delaware?

ECONOMIC STIMULATION, they scream SNOW and everyone runs to the store, literally, shelves were empty, lines going way back, cashiers frantically calling for every employee in the store to open a register.

THE GOVERNOR SHUT DOWN THE STATE, nobody’s supposed to travel after 10 p.m.

Markell declares emergency, restricts driving

and not just Delaware:

Maryland Governor declares emergency before the storm

Washington, D.C., is supposed to get 24-30″ which begs the question — is hell freezing over?

Here’s the Delmarva Power outage map

Maybe they’re planning for us to freeze in the dark in an incubator without a job.  Tomorrow morning will tell…