The pier in Ocean City was damaged in today’s weather. Flooding is widespread throughout Ocean City and is already a problem in downtown Baltimore and Annapolis. The harbors in both cities are closed and Weather.com is reporting that Baltimore may have the storm track directly over it as Hurricane Sandy marches west after landfall.
For pictures of the storm damage and effects in Ocean City, check out OceanCity.com’s Facebook page
To read Scott Dance’s entire article on The Baltimore Sun site, click here
By Scott Dance, Mary Gail Hare and Erin Cox, The Baltimore Sun
2:51 p.m. EDT, October 29, 2012
As Hurricane Sandy pounds the mid-Atlantic coast Monday, the Baltimore region is bracing for gale-force winds and flooding.
The area remains under a flood watch through Tuesday evening, with coastal flooding expected late Monday into Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rain, as much as six inches, and high winds, with gusts as much as 70 miles per hour, will occur throughout Monday afternoon and well into Tuesday, according to forecasters.
Gov. Martin O’Malley warned of the danger of the storm Monday. “There will be people who will die and are killed in this storm,” the governor said while visiting the Maryland Emergency Management Agency. “Stay off the roads, hunker down with your families.”
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“My biggest concern is the potential loss of life,” O’Malley continued. “This will be unlike any storm we’ve had.”
O’Malley ordered three bridges closes by 2:30 p.m. Monday: the Bay Bridge and the Hatem and Tydings bridges. He also canceled early voting on Tuesday.
The governor said Sandy’s wind gusts saw increases to 90 mph, necessitating the closures.
Ocean City’s downtown pier has been heavily damaged overnight, town officials confirmed, as Hurricane Sandy pounds the shores with massive surf.
Town police spokesman Michael Levy said there is extensive damage to the pier, though webcams show some of the structure still standing. Town officials will provide more details at a press conference Monday.
The pier sits at the southern end of the Boardwalk, in the area south of 17th Street under a mandatory evacuation since Sunday afternoon because of flooding.
Wind gusts of up to 50 mph were recorded in the Ocean City inlet near the pier overnight Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Storm surge was expected to reach 8 feet in the height of the storm late Monday into Tuesday, with wind gusts likely to reach hurricane force of at least 75 mph.
At 2 p.m., Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. reported 22,800 outages, with more than half of those outages reported in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties. The two largest outage areas were in northwest and West Baltimore.
Since the company’s storm operations began at 10 a.m. Sunday, power has been restored to 10,800 customers.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Monday afternoon that impending weather conditions prompted city government to close for the remainder of the day Monday, and on Tuesday. She said she anticipates having to announce mandatory travel restrictions as the storm grows stronger through the evening.
“Our number one focus continues to be public safety,” Rawlings-Blake said at a news conference held at the city’s emergency management headquarters on Calvert Street. “We fully expect weather conditions to deteriorate rapidly going into this afternoon and this evening.”
Rawlings-Blake urged residents to stay at home, and said that should motorists reach any standing water, they should err on the side of safety.
“We will reach a point in this storm this evening where people will have to stay off the roads completely,” she said. “Hunker down at home and ride out this storm.”
“Turn around,” she added. “Don’t drown.”
She also warned residents that it was, “extremely likely that tens of thousands of residents will lose power this evening,” and that the city would work with BGE to help clear debris and restore power — as long as it wasn’t dangerous for workers.
She also assured that the city’s emergency personnel were at maximum capacity and able to respond to any incidents, including more than 2,000 police officers who are working overnight, all special operation teams on hand, more than 350 firefighters and paramedics staffing units across the city, and federal resources, including National Guard Humvees that she said were deployed with police and strategically placed throughout the city.
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