Friday, July 13, 2012

Weddings vs. Tornadoes

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has published advice on an unusual topic for them: weddings.

CDC’s Wedding Day Survival Guide

"We’re sure it’s just a fluke that wedding season happens to coincide with hurricane season. ... Many of us here at CDC realized that planning for a wedding isn’t that much different from planning for a disaster. ...

[Um... 'Kay. Not sure what that has to do with disease control.]

Sunday, July 1, 2012

DC Derecho

It never rains, but it pours. Just two days after we closed up the Red Cross shelter for people affected by the Bladensburg microburst, we had to open several more due to another windstorm. I'm managing one for 150 people, including about 60 kids, most of them very young.

This time it was a derecho, and in the same area the microburst hit, wind gusted up to 79 mph -- once again ripping the roofs off some buildings. [Videos after the jump.]

In this area alone, over a million people lost power. At the same time temperatures have hit the triple-digits. Not-so-fun fact: The disaster type that kills the most people in this area is the heat. (Or the humidity, depending on how you look at it.)