Hurricane Irene, breweries, and DC emergency contacts

As Hurricane Irene comes past, keep in mind that for breweries the danger is not only from the storm, winds, and flooding. If power is lost, refrigeration is lost. If refrigeration is lost, beer is lost. That's a financial hit that can cripple a smaller brewery, and endanger livelihoods.

Here's how the Dogfish Head Brewery 'Tweeted' their situation earlier today. Sitting near the coast of Delaware, the brewery and its brewpub could be in the bulls-eye path of the storm.

Heading inland. Hope 4 intact brewery, brewpub & all the beer safe & sound. Here's to hoping #Irene is a craft beer-loving hurricane!Sat Aug 27 11:17:49 +0000 2011 via Twitter for iPad
Dogfish Head Brewery
dogfishbeer

We hope for the best for Dogfish Head and for all of our brewery friends along the mid-Atlantic coast, New York, and New England. We wish safety for everyone in Irene's path. Today, don't forget your bottled 'water.' Tomorrow, we'll all appreciate a good beer.



Iki pasimatymo!

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If you live in the greater Washington D.C. area, here's a list of local emergency contact numbers, from The Breaking News Blog of the Washington Post.

UTILITIES

• Pepco: To report an outage or downed wire, call 1-877-PEPCO-62 (1-877-737-2662).
• Dominion: To report outages or downed lines, call 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-66-366-4357).
• BGE: To report outages, call 1-877-778-2222. To report a gas leak or downed power line, call 1-800-685-0123.

CABLE AND INTERNET PROVIDERS

• Comcast: 1-800-COMCAST (1-800-266-2278).
• Verizon: 1-800-VERIZON (1-800-837-4966).

TREE REMOVAL

• D.C.: To report downed limbs and trees, call 311.
• Montgomery County: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 311.
• Prince George’s County: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 301-499-8520.
• Fairfax County: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 703-324-1770.
• Arlington: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 703-228-6525.
• Prince William County: To report a tree that has fallen on public property, call 703-792-7070.

TRAFFIC CONDITIONS
Drivers in Maryland and Virginia can call 511 to get the latest on traffic conditions.

RED CROSS
To find out about emergency services in your town, call the organization at 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

EMERGENCY SHELTER
The Red Cross is setting up dozens of shelters across the East Coast. Shelters can be located on a map the organization maintains on is Web site. The Red Cross can also be contacted at 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

HOTLINES

• Prince George’s County: Non-emergency hurricane hotline will be in effect from 2 p.m. Saturday for at least 48 hours, call 301-352-1290.
• The county’s emergency command center, at 6820 Webster St. in Hyattsville will open at noon on Saturday. Updates will be available on the Twitter handle @CountyExecBaker and on Facebook.