First day back after Isabel!

[Terri C]

Today was my first day back skating after Hurricane Isabel.
There was damage to the roof of the rink , causing us to have to share ONE surface with hockey and the freestyle schedule being cut back!
It was crowded at freestyle this afternoon- kids are still out of school due to the power being out in some of the area , as well as damaged schools being repaired.
Plus, most of these kids are going to South Atlantics in three weeks!

How did you DC/ Baltimore folks do with Isabel? Are your rinks back up and running?

[Debbie S]

Well, I heard that the rink I usually skate at lost power Thurs night but got it restored the next morning. Today, I went to practice at another rink (my usual rink doesn't have Monday sessions) and I got there to discover the rink was closed due to no power. There was a large generator outside that I presumed was keeping the ice cold, but I guess it wasn't helping the lights. I called flo's rink in my car and (as I thought) they don't have sessions on Monday afternoons. So no skating today.

I'm kind of bummed, b/c I was counting on being able to practice my MIF today before my lesson Wednesday. My regular rink has sessions tomorrow, but it will probably be 6:30 by the time I make my way up I-95 from College Park to Harford County (via the Ft. McHenry Tunnel). Plus, I've got a statistics exam on Thursday, but I do want to practice.

And to complicate matters for the people who lost power (like my parents), it's raining as I write this. As if we didn't get enough rain Thursday and Friday. :(

Do you have power, Terri? I know VA Beach was hit hard.

[Candleonwater]

On Friday (in Northern Virginia) it was fun to try to find ice. Our rink was closed due to no power, then another rink (that started out open early in the day) closed due to inclement weather, finally the 3rd rink we tried, after their first FS of the day closed due to no water! No damage to any of those rinks (that I am aware of).

[flo]

Hi,
Our rink is in the flood zone, so I called and offered to help fill sand bags, but they were well prepared. They lost power, but were back on Friday evening, so we were able to have our first club session of the season Saturday morning. I was still without power, so glad to get out and skate. It ended up being a great session. We're now offering pilates classes at no charge. It was great to be back.

Many of the areas down by the harbor did not fare as well. The streets were flooded, and looked more like rivers.

[Terri C]

Debbie,
I was VERY fortunate to have both power and phone restored by Saturday afternoon! Some of the kids I skate with still do not have power- and schools are still closed!
Our freestyle sessions will be minimal this week! :x

[mikawendy]

My power was off probably about as long as flo's was (we're about a block away from each other). I'd've gone to skate at her club on Saturday but I was busy moving the contents of our soon-to-be-thawed freezer to a friend's working freezer. Then when the power came back on 3 hours later (after being out for nearly 2 days), I had to cart everything back.

I went to edge class on Sunday and the rink was open and operating as usual (I figured since I was able to get the rink answering machine, they had power). The ice surface was slightly off at each end (stand still and you'd slide downhill toward the center of the rink), but that could have been due to how the Zam was operated rather than power outage...