Projo Subterranean Homepage News

During yesterday's nor'easter, roughly a dozen Journal reporters and at least one photographer blogged realtime storm reports from wherever they were, all over the state. These weren't stories, they were the quick news we tell each other, what's happening out there.

The Block Island Ferry was canceled; power out at Rhode Island College; no kindergarten in Gloucester; flight delays; fallen trees... you get the picture.

It's not hard to imagine what happened between these two posts by the same reporter:

(I've reversed the order of the two posts below. Blogs are written in reverse chronological order, but they usually aren't read that way.)

Officials: Avoid section of Mineral Spring Ave.

NORTH PROVIDENCE -- North Providence Public Works officials are advising motorists to avoid traveling east on Mineral Spring Avenue near Brown Street because of a very deep puddle.
-- A foot-deep puddle is making it difficult to enter the North Providence Shopping Plaza, off Douglas Avenue.

-- Mark Reynolds.
Posted by at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)

Flooding averted in North Providence

NORTH PROVIDENCE -- The Department of Transportation and North Providence Public Works crews rushed to clear out storm drains in the area of Mineral Spring Avenue and Brookside Avenue this morning because the overflowing drains were threatening to flood the low-lying neighborhood. The drains were cleared and the water has receded.

-- Mark Reynolds.
Posted by at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)

And then power started coming back on, and the Weather Service said the worst was over.

Andrea Panciera and Jack Perry published their snippets on a hastily created Storm Blog, Michael Lenihan had a hand in getting the photos up, and Beth Dyer came up with a script to display headline links of the most recent posts at the top of the homepage.

It seemed to work really well. I was busy doing other things, but every time I checked into the homepage there was more news of places I know, and the tone of these events helped measure the severity of the storm: My basement might need a little pumping, but my road home probably wouldn't be blocked.

The Storm Blog fell off the homepage overnight. Never to be seen again?

I created the blog barebones, on the fly, for an ephemeral event, and the blog vanished with the storm. When I get a moment, I'm going to make the October Nor'easter the first Category in a Storm Blog we can use repeatedly (and, I fervently hope, rarely).

Projo.com is a patchwork, and while reporters used blog software, readers uploaded photos into a neverending Storm Shots slideshow that's been going for quite a while. I'll add that link to it, too. The photo above is by Steve Hurkett of Johnston.

Eventually, among us all, we'll document everything.

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1 Comments

Clifford H. Jones said:

Dear Sir,
I am trying to locate a Steve Hurkett from Rhode Island who was seeking information on his ancestors who fought in the First World War. As a collectors of military medals to the South Staffordshire Regt and a particular interest in WW1 i have information on one of the soldiers.
I know this is a "long shot", but hopefully you can get this message to him.
Please note,I will be away after today on holiday till Tuesday in North wales.

Kind Regards,
Clifford H Jones

Link | August 21, 2009 7:09 AM
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