Unshoveled sidewalks like this one on Water Street were common last winter. Officials hope the new ordinance will prevent a repeat.
FILE PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

No one teaches a lesson quite like Mother Nature, and last winter’s epic snowstorms revealed flaws in the city’s snow removal laws that Charlottesville officials hope have been addressed in a new ordinance approved in August.

“We absolutely think it’s going to make a difference,” says Jim Tolbert, head of the Neighborhood Planning Department on Wednesday, December 15, the eve of the area’s first snowstorm.

The old snow removal ordinance required residents and business owners to clear the sidewalks around their properties within 24 hours of the last snowflakes falling. Failure to do so was considered a crime, a Class One misdemeanor carrying the possibility of a jail sentence up to 12 months and a fine up to $2,500.

As it turned out, the threat of jail didn’t have the desired effect. After the city failed to clear its own properties, police enforcement was  practically nonexistent. Sidewalks remained impassable for weeks following the December 18, 2009 storm dubbed “Snowpocalyse” that dropped around two feet and the 18-inch February 6, 2010 “Snowmageddon.”

When police finally did begin to issue citations in February, the charges didn’t stick after judges ruled the ordinance was in violation of state law.

“Public Works did a terrible job and didn’t seem to learn lessons from the first snowfall,” says Kevin Cox, an avid pedestrian and outspoken critic of city’s handling of snow issues last year. Cox says he’s now hopeful that this is the year snow removal will finally be taken seriously in Charlottesville. (more)

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Here’s the 9:28am look of one low-water area in Charlottesville, the CSX bridge over Main and 14th Streets.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

The steady nature of the overnight rainfall combined with the parched earth of the summer’s severe drought seemed to limit flooding from the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole. The Twitter feed of the Newsplex’s weather department reports that the storm delivered 1.83″ of rain from midnight to 9am. The Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority instituted a call for voluntary water conservation one week ago when the urban reservoirs were around 67 percent of capacity. Yesterday, they were down to 65 percent, but when the figures for Thursday get posted, they’ll probably be higher.

Update: The October 1 report shows both the Rivanna and Sugar Hollow reservoirs full and the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, which can’t fill itself without a pipeline or a massive rainfall, still 3.3 feet below capacity.

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Lush, forceful, and unexpectedly dense shoegaze duo descended from My Bloody Valentine. Manorlady and the Fire Tapes open.

The Sky Drops - Truth Is

Manorlady - Red Juice
Manorlady - Trees
Manorlady - Lost Dogs
Manorlady - International Boys Club
Manorlady - Boy And Flippers

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UVA powers down in the face of the sun.
PHOTOS BY JEN FARIELLO & IAN JAMES O’NEILL

A month ago, the University of Virginia conducted an “energy reduction” drill designed to reduce electric loads on its power grid in case of a declaration of an “energy emergency.” Today, the drill became reality.

“Yes, we’ve been informed that there is a real electric grid emergency in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” says Cheryl Gomez, UVA Facilities Management director of energy and utilities around 2pm Wednesday, July 7. “We’re initiating the load reduction plan as we speak.”

However, a spokesperson with Virginia Dominion Power disputes that, saying there is no grid emergency. More on that further down.

Gomez says that University officials received word earlier in the day from PJM Interconnection, an organization that monitors the flow of electricity in the Virginia Dominion Power region, that the current heat wave was causing an energy emergency on the state’s power grid, which could lead to rolling blackouts.

Gomez says it’s the first time the University had to implement the load reduction plan for real, but that during the two-hour drill on June 10, which tested the University’s ability to take loads off-line, they were able to reduce energy consumption by 2.96 megawatts. This time, however, Energy Connect has advised UVA to remain in an energy emergency for at least six hours.

Meanwhile, Gomez says a thermal energy storage tank has been brought on-line, which will offset the energy load by 1 to 2 megawatts, and that they’ve taken the main heating/cooling plant on Massie Road and another near a research facility off-line. The two plants will now run on diesel powered generators until the emergency is over.

Gomez also says that University faculty, students, and administrators have been asked to turn off all lights, computers, monitors, appliances, and any other devices not needed to do business.

If all goes as planned, Gomez expects UVA to take 6 megawatts off the power grid.

However, David Botkins, media relations director for Dominion, says the company wasn’t aware of any grid emergency. PJM, he said, could have made the call on its own.

“We haven’t broken any records yet,” he says, pointing out that the highest usage the company experienced was in August 2007. “There is high demand today, and we are encouraging conservation measures, but no emergency is in effect.” He suggested we call UVA Facilities Mangagement director Don Sundgren to confirm.

Sundgren, however, stood behind Gomez’s statements.

“We wouldn’t implement this on our own,” he says.

Updated 7.8.2010 9:24am

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Anoop Mirpuri and Chelsea Marie pack up to leave their ruined rental hosue.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

It was only later that Anoop Mirpuri considered, “I could have died.”

On June 24, Mirpuri was at his rental home in his upstairs office, preparing to defend his dissertation as a fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute. As the wind picked up, he decided to go downstairs and close the bedroom windows. That’s when he heard a loud noise.

“I thought it was an earthquake,” says the California-raised scholar. “I looked up, and the roof started cracking.”

The microburst that snapped trees all over Charlottesville had sheared off the side of the house he rents with his girlfriend on Westwood Road. Gone was his desk, his Macbook, and nearly his life.

I ran out and saw the tree,” says Mirpuri.

Four days later, a blue tarp is the only wall for the office and bedroom on that side of the house. Monopoly money, a GQ magazine, and a battered printer that were inside pre-storm now litter the yard.

Anoop Mirpuri had just closed the windows when the big oak hit.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Thirty-one houses in town had trees crashing down on them in the June 24 storm, exceeding the 27 homes tree-bombed by Hurricane Isabel, a multi-day event, says Fire Chief Charles Werner.

Mirpuri and Chelsea Marie, who is wrapping up her post-doctoral work at the UVA Medical Center, are trying to pack what’s left of life in Charlottesville for a moving van coming in two days.

“Our neighbors have been great,” says Marie. “No one else has helped us.”

When she thought things couldn’t get any worse, Marie says a television station, running a story about the damage, gave the address of the house, which is owned by Hook culture editor Rosalind Warfield-Brown, and they experienced a dose of post-storm looting.

“Someone came and walked off with a new propane tank,” says Marie. “Sixty dollars is a lot to us now.” The couple doesn’t have renters insurance.

Good news came the following day when Mirpuri’s MacBook was found amid the rubble. Better yet, the computer came on. His dissertation secure, he plans to continue its defense as planned.

They’ve been staying with friends and plan to go forward with their move in a month to Drew University in northern New Jersey.

“We’ve rented a basement townhouse,” says Marie. “That sounds great right now.”
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An umbrella tumbled down Preston Avenue.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Update: SLIDESHOW.

One of the hottest days of the year delivered Charlottesville a tree-smashing, traffic-stopping microburst Thursday. Drivers had to dodge sideways winds, tumbling limbs, and moments of hail as the storm struck just before 5pm.

Rio Road is said to be grid-lock, and so is Georgetown Road. There are even— according to callers on Coy Barefoot’s WINA radio show— problems on Interstate 64. The right westbound lane near the Fifth Street Exit has a tree on it, according to a caller

This tree was uprooted along Rose Hill Drive.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

WINA’s own property on Rose Hill Drive is the site of an uprooted evergreen tree as well as an another evergreen snapped like a toothpick.

– developing—

On Holmes Avenue, there’s a tree atop a house, according to a caller.

Roads with giant problems:

- Alderman

- Route 250 Bypass between Best Buy and Ivy Road Exit

- North Avenue due to fallen utility pole

- Georgetown Road

- Hinton Avenue in Belmont, site of fallen utility pole

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