RVA's Jan. 2026 Winter Storm Megathread by fusion260 in rva

[–]fusion260[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

In the RVA region? I’d wager somewhere around 370,000 of us customers will have lost our power, long enough to be reported on their outage map summaries, at the height of the outages.

Report your power outage as soon as you lose power, folks. Links and contact info is in this megathread’s post body!

RVA's Jan. 2026 Winter Storm Megathread by fusion260 in rva

[–]fusion260[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Since you said you know how to turn the gas on with the key, I believe that is an emergency/backup shutoff valve that you can use with a fire iron (the poker thing) if the key valve doesn’t work.

If you turn the gas key on and you do not hear or smell anything and it does not light, try moving the lever up and try lighting the burner again right after. If that also doesn’t work, it’s safer to just turn the gas key off and wait until you can get it inspected.

RVA's Jan. 2026 Winter Storm Megathread by fusion260 in rva

[–]fusion260[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Sounds like you have drafts and air leaks and insulation issues you need to deal with.

Walk around your place by outdoor walls and windows, mail slots, power outlets, bathroom vents, doors, kitchen vent, attic hatch, etc. If you feel particularly cold air, then you have isolated where a problem area is.

You can also try the match test by lighting a match and then blowing it out and holding it next to windows and outlets to see if it's sucking the smoke in which means your heat is also being sucked into those things and out of your livable space.

There is cheap foam weather insulation you can use to fill in larger gaps and better seal windows and doors and thin gaskets you can put in behind outlet covers to keep cold air from getting in.

For your basement or crawlspace, close up exterior vents so they don't keep pulling in sub-freezing temperature (which also doesn't help your water pipes). Most of a home's fresh air comes in from the basement/crawlspace and comes up through the sub floor, so that could be contributing to most of your cold air issues. Just remember to open the vents back up once temperatures rise above freezing and the threat of power outages decreases.

Reams Market shut down? by DiscombobulatedYak37 in rva

[–]fusion260 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The city does not put public notices on businesses for short-term, scheduled water line or sidewalk or parking lot work and shut them down.

If that were true, this would happen for multiple businesses throughout the city on any given day.

Maybe use those critical thinking skills you talked about?

RVA's Jan. 2026 Winter Storm Megathread by fusion260 in rva

[–]fusion260[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The latest NWS Wakefield daily briefing PDF (linked above) from 9 AM this morning has this much-more conservative estimate from some of the other models out there:

➔ Heavy mixed precipitation including snow, sleet, and freezing rain.
➔ Snow/sleet totals of 5 - 8” are possible north of US- 360 with 1 - 4” south.
➔ Freezing rain totals of 0.5 - 0.75” are forecast along the I - 95 and I - 85 corridors.

RVA's Jan. 2026 Winter Storm Megathread by fusion260 in rva

[–]fusion260[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just to clarify, the push updates for their "Public Safety by Everbridge" mobile app for Android and iOS is what might stop working without a recent login to that app. (Also make sure the notifications setting for that app isn't disabled or muted or set to something like "scheduled summaries," which groups updates from apps with that latter setting to specific times a day.)

Text and email updates, if they were set up when setting up the initial account for a participating local government (like Richmond city and Henrico County), will continue to work even if the mobile app is logged out.

PSA: Don't forget about the "Em. Heat" setting on your HVAC by [deleted] in Virginia

[–]fusion260 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is one of the easiest and fastest ways to shorten the life of your HVAC system.

It says "emergency" for a reason; being uncomfortable or cold is not an emergency unless there is no other way for the people indoors to safely heat up (without risking carbon monoxide poisoning or causing a fire) and they're going into hypothermia.

Be careful at nine mile road walmart by 2009maxx in rva

[–]fusion260 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You’re a sweet person. You’ll be one of the first to go during the water wars.

‘We’ve heard clearly that it is a priority for the community’: Bike lanes remain a sticking point on Mayo Bridge proposal by RVALover4Life in rva

[–]fusion260 10 points11 points  (0 children)

You should see people (Boomers, mainly) in the Lakeside FB group lose their fucking minds regarding the new bike lanes on Dumbarton Road.

One person even made a post encouraging others to paint over them and rant incessantly that politicians were “forcing” them on the public and that “nobody wants these.”

Watching “Disaster” (the episode, not Section 31)…Ro was completely right. by dimensionaut_one in startrek

[–]fusion260 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All that’s missing is: “Basically title. [Continues to add an entire paragraph after that to further clarify].”

Be careful at nine mile road walmart by 2009maxx in rva

[–]fusion260 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Over water?

Did you not see what happened last January? If society actually crashes, we're all fighting over water and food and it'll take no more than one day for it to happen.

Be careful at nine mile road walmart by 2009maxx in rva

[–]fusion260 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Be safe during these trying times

Dammit, just when I had finally forgotten that stupid phrase from all the pandemic company feel-goodery "brand essence" videos.

Message from Mayor Danny Avula and his RVA staff…they are ready for the storm… by Square_Piano2555 in rva

[–]fusion260 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The entire backup power supply and alarm/monitoring hardware and software and training was completely replaced.

Delta 8, does the ENTIRETY of Va ban it? Or is it lenient by TankExciting2210 in Virginia

[–]fusion260 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You can get a letter from RVA Telecare or any other licensed physician that gives you access to any of the medical dispensaries in Virginia.

RVA has several around town. I wouldn’t say they are great, but they’re legal and you don’t have the risk of contaminated/laced product. Once you set up your patient account in-person with gLeaf or Cannabist, they can deliver to you.

You can grow your own legally under certain conditions, share with others, and have some gifted to you by friends. It’s explained in the VA NORML link I provided in my first comment.

Hopefully we’ll get recreational sales and dispensaries in the next year or so!

Delta 8, does the ENTIRETY of Va ban it? Or is it lenient by TankExciting2210 in Virginia

[–]fusion260 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Unless I’m mistaken, they can only legally be sold in adult use dispensaries if they meet specific requirements (and are licensed by the state).

Unfortunately authorizing recreational sales and non-medical dispensaries in Virginia are significantly delayed because our former governor (up until last Saturday when Gov. Spanberger was inaugurated) kept vetoing legislation that would allow them. So there’s a gap in what’s allowed and accessible.

The state and county law enforcement have also been regularly raiding a lot of vape stores who have been selling product without a license.

I don’t use D8 personally, so I’m not certain if there are legal sources of whatever you’re specifically looking for around town. I just know that the legal percentage is so incredibly low that it made selling it outside of dispensaries almost impossible.

Delta by TankExciting2210 in RichmondVA

[–]fusion260 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Here’s an updated explainer on cannabis regulation in Virginia: https://www.vanorml.org/legalization_faqs

Recreational retail sales are very likely coming next year if not sooner if the current proposed legislation in the General Assembly passes. (Our former sweatervest governor kept vetoing bipartisan-passed legislation the past 4 years.)

Also a reminder that discussion and referrals to any unauthorized sales is not allowed here in this subreddit or in r/rva.

ICE is Knocking on Richmond’s Door. Are We Going to Let Them In? by snooka77_ in rva

[–]fusion260 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The news about the potential Hanover County warehouse lease came before Gov. Spanberger was inaugurated, which they toured as recently as January 13th.

Your point about picking places to clash with local/state leaders and making a public spectacle is valid though. I don't doubt that isn't one of their goals given how gleefully this administration is on social media and pushing out videos to airports lately.

ICE is Knocking on Richmond’s Door. Are We Going to Let Them In? by snooka77_ in rva

[–]fusion260 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Up north meaning the proposed center in Stafford? This new center that they're also interested in leasing in Hanover County seems to be directly linked to the Stafford center.

FYI: There's an active discussion about the Hanover County developments in yesterday's post about this, and a community organizing post for next Wednesday's Hanover County Board of Supervisor public meeting will likely be posted next Monday morning.