Storm

tammyb@herald-mail.com When Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich declared a state of emergency as a result of this week's snowstorm, the 729th Forward Support Battalion of the Maryland National Guard was called to active duty. Headquartered in Hagerstown, the battalion assisted Maryland State Police in Hagerstown and Frederick, Md., with transportation during the worst of the storm and its aftermath, according to Major John Stevens. "We were out from Sunday afternoon to Monday evening," Stevens said.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- "That's the end of this barn," Ellis Keyfauver said Thursday morning as he surveyed the damage wrought by a storm that ripped through southern Washington County a day earlier. The barn, which had stood on the outskirts of Sharpsburg since at least 1913, was felled by the power of the storm. "I thought it would stand to be 100, but it didn't make it," Keyfauver, 87, said. The weathered wooden frame, metal roof and valuable cupolas laid in a heap on top of the barn's concrete foundation.

by RIC DUGAN / staff photographer enlargement RIDGEWAY, W.Va. - The storm hit the home of Vera Hartless so hard Tuesday night that she was frightened as she ran from the security of the concrete block basement to a nearby metal and plywood tool shed where her husband was working. --cont. from news -- "I felt safer with him," said Hartless, 53. "If we were going to go, we were going to go together. " Vera and Robert Hartless, 52, waited out the fierce thunderstorm in the shed as the wind ripped off the back porch of their home in southern Berkeley County.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A thunderstorm Thursday is suspected of knocking out power to about 1,600 Allegheny Power customers just south of Martinsburg, a company spokesman said. The outage occurred in the State Circle area about 8:30 p.m., and power was expected to be restored by today at 3:30 a.m., Allegheny Power spokesman David Neurohr said. A Baker Heights Volunteer Fire Department official said the company was dispatched for a report of wires down in the State Circle area, but could not elaborate on the cause.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties in West Virginia had power outages throughout the day Friday after an overnight ice storm. About 4,700 Berkeley County customers in the Cherry Run area were without power Friday until 11:30 a.m., and 1,200 customers in the Arden area lost power about 2 p.m., said Allen Staggers, manager of corporate communications with Allegheny Power. Power was expected to be restored by Friday night, Staggers said. Staggers said 580 Jefferson County customers lost power in the Charles Town and Harpers Ferry areas, and about 370 customers in Morgan County reported being without power.

Weathering the storm of a breakup While there is no blueprint for remaining friends when a relationship heads south, here are some tips for giving it a try. HEIGHT="6" ALT=" "> Be mindful of the other person. Leslie Parrott, author of "Relationships: Making Bad Relationships Better and Good Relationships Great," says it's important to realize both people are hurting. HEIGHT="6" ALT=" "> Make sure you are clear about what you want. Parrott says people sometimes sacrifice some of what they want to cushion the blow to their significant other.

As this is being written, agencies all over the Tri-State area are preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Isabel. Maryland and West Virginia's governors have already declared a state of emergency and the National Weather Service is saying that the storm could dump 9 inches of rain on the region. Elsewhere in this edition, readers will find instructions on what to do if power goes out and if water in local streams begins to rise. Please read those and take sensible precautions. But as citizens do so, we ask them to remember that for this storm and every other disaster, natural or otherwise, an army of local fire/rescue volunteers will be doing whatever they can to save lives and take care of any who are injured.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A communications director in the emergency operations center in the basement of the Franklin County Courthouse said the feeling was cautiously optimistic about Hurricane Isabel Thursday night. "Right now, they've even downplayed it a little more," Michele Sanders said of the National Weather Service estimates of its effects. Estimates of rainfall were in the range of 4 to 6 inches and sustained winds were expected to be 25 to 35 mph, with gusts up to 60 mph. Rains of up to 9 inches and higher winds and been predicted earlier in the week and even earlier in the day. Sanders said windy conditions are supposed to persist into this morning before subsiding in the afternoon.

WASHINGTON COUNTY - A thunderstorm that struck the southern and eastern portions of Washington County on Saturday caused power outages and kept emergency workers hopping. One serious injury was reported when a young woman was struck by lightning near the C&O Canal towpath in Weverton in the southern part of the county. Allegheny Energy crews were working to restore power to some 950 Washington County customers, Allegheny spokesman Mike Grandillo said. Most were in Smithsburg and Knoxville, he said, although there were reports of outages in Keedysville, Hagerstown and other areas.