My sister, J, writes:
Looks like DC is going to get smacked by the hurricane sometime after midnight on Thursday night. They say it would be better if it goes straight over us because there is usually less damage than there is to places that are on the outer edges of the storm (some analogy to an octopus whipping around is the concept). Since I’m on the second floor and my windows are set back from the street and sheltered by two wings of the building, I figure that it’ll be noisy but fine. In the city, they’ve placed sandbags around all of the grates above the metro to protect it from flooding and been trying to unblock any drains that are clogged. I’ve also seen a lot of trimming of trees today, they usually cause the most damage by falling on power lines. Anyway, that’s the scoop from here. I’ll be in touch and let everyone know whether or not M and I end up on a raft!