We made it almost the entire broadcast without incident, but then, just before the game cut to SportsCenter, the camera caught this kid:

Credit for the spot goes to Twitter user Ian Oland, who tweeted the pic after the game. If anybody knows who this is, please let us know — we’d like to ask him where he got the shirt, if it actually helps him pick up “fat bitches,” and if his mother knows he’s wearing that shirt in public.

(Photo courtesy UMD Libraries)

Welcome back to the campus! While you were gone, nature made several half-hearted attempts to remind us that we could be obliterated at any moment, for no reason, by forces that we cannot stop and will only occasionally see coming.

First, the earthquake — a 5.8-magnitude quake last Tuesday that put a four-foot crack in the Washington Monument and, according to library spokesman Eric Bartheld, knocked 27,000 books off the shelves of McKeldin Library.

Bartheld said about 90 people — staff, students workers and volunteers from the university’s College of Information Studies — got the books off the floor in 24 hours. The building was declared structurally sound and open again by Friday, except for sections of the fourth and seventh floors with damaged shelving units.

About 700 books were also damaged, Bartheld said, “which is a very low number all things considered.”

Reportedly NOT how shelves are supposed to look. On the 7th floor of McKeldin Library. (Photo courtesy UMD Libraries)

And then, you may have heard, there was a hurricane. College Park got more rain in 24 hours
from Hurricane Irene than it normally does in the entire month of August, according to data from weather-tracking agencies — on the campus, several trees were uprooted and two gentlemen took off all their clothes in the ODK fountain.

National Weather Services data from Sunday reveals the area saw 4.90 inches of rain on Saturday and into Sunday morning. An average of more than 101 years’ worth of College Park rainfall data from the Southeast Regional Climate Center shows that August is typically the rainiest month for the area and averages 4.52 inches of precipitation total.

Though power was out in many spots throughout the city, the area was spared from the conditions that, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, killed at least 21 people between Florida and Connecticut.

And, if you believe the Farmer’s Almanac (which everyone does), we should be home free from weather disasters. We’re in for “colder-than-normal winter temperatures,” according to the long-running publication’s completely random guesses, but it will be a “kinder and gentler” winter than the one that brought us Snowmageddon.

The wind was blowing the rain hard, the tiny droplets stinging the faces and arms of the half-dozen people huddled in front of Commons 7. Water rushed down the road past the Mowatt Lane parking garage. Trees swayed dramatically. A Jimmy John’s delivery man dropped a sandwich off at Commons 5. Those guys are better than the Post Office.

Farther up Preinkert Drive, we saw lightning flash to the northeast, and four men in full-length yellow coats and hoods wandered in front of Caroline Hall looking like characters out of Despicable Me.

It was like this, except windier and more ominous.

Two men stumbled, soaked, past Shoemaker Hall and yelled after us. They wanted to know where Hagerstown Hall was. Wolper told them it was far, really far, and asked why they wanted to know.

They were freshmen, on their way home from a frat party. They just moved in, they said, and had no idea where they were. Just walk that way, we said, and stop if you get to the Comcast Center.

McKeldin Mall was a swamp. Parts of the sidewalk were submerged in three inches of (very cold) water, and the grass was matted flat where water was steadily flowing into a drainage grate. There were, as we’d hoped, students at the ODK fountain — about a dozen men, most in the fountain, most in their underwear. Several clothed gentlemen, seniors, they said, sat on the nearby wall drinking Natural Light, talking about how the storm had “been a disappointment up until now.” The wind gusted harder, and a tree branch blew in front of the giant spotlight shining on the fountain. One of them yelled, “come on, Irene,” for what was probably the 50th time that night, then two guys got naked in the fountain and ran from one end to the other. The beer-drinking men looked away.

We walked toward the Stamp Student Union, Wolper talked about how writers for the entertainment section never get to do Things Like This. The staircase between Stamp and the Nyumburu Cultural Center was littered with branches.

Walking up stadium drive, the rain started to hurt. The wind made it hard to walk up the hill, and the massive light pole overlooking the soccer practice field swayed and clanked loudly enough that we didn’t stick around to watch it.

We walked past a man running towards Ellicott Hall with a destroyed red and white umbrella. On LaPlata Beach, between LaPlata and Cumberland Halls, three shirtless students were running in circles on the astroturf. We asked them what they were doing. “Enjoying the hurricane, motherfucker,” one said. Another, named Leo, said the storm “could be better.” They wandered off, with no destination, into the dark.

On the sidewalk leading up to the North Campus diner, what was at one point a metal trash can lay on its side next to the sidewalk. It weighed at least 80 pounds and offered no evidence of how it got there. Maybe it was that guy with the umbrella.

Walking towards the Denton Community, we spotted the first and only females we saw all night. There were large branches lying on the ground in the picnic area in front of Elkton Hall, and two 20-foot pine trees had been ripped out of the ground next to the apiary. We looked for the bees. We didn’t find any bees.

Near the alumni center, we passed a group of three men. They were yelling; one fell off a curb.

You fellows enjoying the hurricane, I asked.

“Absolutely,” one of them said.

Where have you been, we said.

“…Absolutely,” he said.

We moved on.

The trek calmed down after that — a front-end loader drove through Lot 1, a tree was uprooted in front of Knight Hall. A Diamondback photographer was in front of the ODK fountain talking about all the mysterious white vans he’d spotted roving the campus and about the strange men wearing yellow coats in the shadows. (We found some more yellow men walking away from Woods Hall; they said they were with Facilities Management and were checking buildings for flooding and making sure drains were clear.)

We got back to find out that power had gone out of a large portion of South Campus and that, rather than Prince George’s County having 30,000 people without power, it was now 114,975. But the worst seemed to be over, and the Sunday forecast predicted College Park to be mostly sunny and 80 degrees.

As I write this in the dark on a dying laptop, it’s still raining hard, and there have been several noises that sounded like explosions outside of Commons 7. Everyone’s smoke alarms are beeping with startling volume, which seemed annoying until College Park Patch tweeted about a tree falling on a house on Dartmouth Avenue.

At least it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow.

This is what rain looks like.

Sunday, 2 a.m.: Sorry for the delay — just got back into Commons 7 after a walking tour of campus. It appears all South Campus Commons buildings have lost power, and a fire truck is currently parked in front of Commons 5 — we spotted firefighters going up a stairwell; a student is reportedly stuck in the elevator. Power has gone out on College Avenue, according to a Twitter follower, and the University Club apartments lost power at about 1:15 a.m. As of about 1:30 a.m., the north campus dorms had power.

Even so, reports of glitchy electricity seem to be the only problems. Full report on what we saw around the campus soon, assuming battery power lasts until the power comes back on, but it seems that, for now, the worst is some uprooted trees and a relatively routine power outage.

—

Sunday, 12:23 a.m.: Facilities Management has told reporter Nick Foley that the entire campus currently has power.

In addition, the rain and wind has gone up from “it is raining” levels to “oh dear I’m scared to look out the window.” Venturing into the torrent with editor Jon Wolper.

—

Sunday, 12:15 a.m.: After losing power several hours ago, the Courtyards apartments have regained electricity. After briefly going out just before midnight, power has also returned to Commons buildings 3, 6 and 7. Power also went out in Commons 4 but has also returned; no word on the fate of Knox Road, or of reports that lights are flickering on North Hill and in Washington Hall. We’ll get in touch with facilities management and get back to you. If anybody has a friend on North Campus, it would be great to hear from them about what’s going on up there.

—

Saturday, 11:58 p.m.: As far as we know, the power has just gone out in Commons 3, 6 and 7, and, according to a Twitter follower, a large section of Knox Road. For some miraculous reason the wireless Internet is still up and running (backup generators?), so we can keep blogging until laptop and phone batteries die. Anyone else lose power? Hello?

—

Saturday, 9:30 p.m.: Reports of power outages in College Park are starting to trickle in — Diamondback reporter Nick Foley has confirmed that all of the Courtyards apartments have lost power, and Twitter users have reported outages near Metzerott and 35th Avenues and near Mom’s Organic Market on Rhode Island Avenue.

It’s not clear what caused the Courtyards outage or when it will be fixed, according to Jack Baker, the director of operations and maintenance for the university’s Department of Facilities Management.

Elsewhere in Prince George’s County, 21,500 customers are now without power, according to the Washington Post, and Gov. Martin O’Malley said in a 9:40 p.m. press briefing that power is down for 158,000 Maryland residents. He also said someone with the Maryland State Police had spotted a tornado touch down in an “unpopulated area” in Wicomico County.

“At this point, the storm is approaching,” O’Malley said, warning that there would be “trees flying around … and power lines coming down.”

An expert at the briefing took the microphone and said that hurricane conditions would be limited in Maryland to the Eastern Shore, but before he could elaborate the Internet feed of the briefing cut out and was replaced with footage of a bill signing ceremony from April.

The campus around 9 p.m. didn’t look to be in particularly bad shape: There isn’t any flooding to speak of on south campus, and we haven’t received any reports of damage elsewhere. McKeldin Mall was a bit swampy, but there was only light rain and wind gusts, nothing like the winds blowing television reporters around the roads in Ocean City.

But that could change in the coming hours, and the winds are picking up — Ocean City is projected to get it much worse than Prince George’s County, but the storm isn’t going to be past the area until around 2 a.m.

As always, if you see anything people should know about, comment here or tweet at us at @theDBK.

—

Saturday, 6:20 p.m.: The Washington Post is reporting 10,000 homes in Prince George’s County are already without power, and the worst rain and wind won’t arrive in the D.C. area until between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m.

So charge up your phones, guys — it looks like the possible “isolated power outages” predicted by the National Weather Service are coming to fruition before the worst part of our weather even arrives. There are also about 726,000 people without power in Virginia and North Carolina, where the storm is currently moving, Dominion Virginia Power spokeswoman Daisy Pridgen told WUSA9.

If you lose power but want to stay updated, WTOP radio is accessible by calling (202) 380-9977 on any phone.

—

Saturday, 5:15 p.m.: The rain is coming down pretty hard and the winds are beginning to pick up, but nothing terrifyingly out of the ordinary in College Park. Not the weather that has so far killed two people in Virginia and three in North Carolina, according to reports, but the worst is most certainly still to come for us. College Park Patch editor Shannon Hoffman is already reporting Metzerott Road near Paint Branch Trail is blocked to traffic.

Flooding appears to be a growing concern: Though the county’s tropical storm warning has not changed, the flash flood watch for Prince George’s County was upgraded to a flash flood warning with an immediate urgency by the National Weather Service shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday. The warning states that flash floods have been detected by the National Weather Service in the warned area, which also includes Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties. From the warning:

“Most flood deaths occur in automobiles. Never drive your vehicle into areas where the water covers the roadway. Flood waters are usually deeper than they appear. Just one foot of flowing water is powerful enough to sweep vehicles off the road. When encountering flooded roads make the smart choice. Turn around, don’t drown.”

There you have it: Stay out of your damned car. The delineations between the different hurricane/tropical storm categories are based on wind speed, not rainfall, and the rainfall associated with this storm appears to be through the roof — Hampton, Va. has so far gotten almost 13 inches of the clear wet stuff. But in case you are for some reason wondering, Metro is still operating on schedule, and WUSA9 is reporting that tomorrow should actually turn out to be a nice day — 84 and partly cloudy, if you believe the report given around 5:40 p.m.

If you see anything people should know about, comment here or tweet at us at @theDBK. We’ll be here all night.

via Flickr user Jim Linwood

The university community was told to expect a massive, horrifying debacle, but according to a warning put out Friday night by the National Weather Service, Prince George’s County shouldn’t be expecting hurricane-force winds and has only a 55-percent chance of seeing tropical-storm level trouble at all.

The county, which was omitted from the hurricane warning issued for parts of Virginia and Maryland, should expect “gusty northwest winds” and potential flash flooding through Sunday, but will likely be spared from the brunt of the ugliness.

Sustained winds are predicted to max out at 30 to 40 mph, with gusts up to 55 — a far cry from the 89-mph “sustained wind gusts” that university President Wallace Loh warned the community about Friday afternoon. The weather service alert warns that “minor damage could occur to older mobile homes,” and “residents should move loose items indoors, such as garbage cans and outdoor furniture, as they will be blown around.” Not exactly the kind of weather that makes you stock up on water.

In addition, though South Campus Commons management warned residents Friday evening that it’s likely “we will lose power … and the outage may continue for days,” the weather service alert says only that “isolated power outages will be possible.”

We’ll have to wait and see what actually shows up Saturday afternoon, and the weather service cautions that “small changes in the forecast track will have implications on all elements of the forecast,” but this latest report indicates College Park may only be dealing with the outer edges of Hurricane Irene.

No word on whether Denzel is involved with this one.

Not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s a hurricane coming, and everyone should buckle down, board up their windows and begin collecting two of every animal. Parts of New York City are being evacuated, Washington Mayor Vincent Gray and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley have both declared states of emergency and, if emails being sent to the university community are any indication, College Park is in for a serious whomping too.

A message sent to South Campus Commons residents late Friday actually said students might be better off leaving town altogether — Commons management, the email says, has been alerted “to the likeliness that we will lose power … and the outage may continue for days.”

The email also suggested to stock up on water, food and “important documents.” Like another Commons email sent Tuesday, it reminded students to close their windows to prevent water from coming in, which is apparently a frequent oversight we should all probably be ashamed of.

University President Wallace Loh also sent an email Friday afternoon warning of the impending weekend apocalypse, instructing everyone to stay inside and avoid 90-mph wind gusts predicted to start late afternoon Saturday. He provided emergency numbers (hint: 9-1-1) and said to get some cash, because ATMs are not hurricane proof. He concluded the email with “Have a great weekend!”

While it’s not clear if we’ll actually see winds as strong as Loh says, Reuters is reporting that Irene is projected to maintain hurricane-strength winds as it heads up the coast towards New England, which means sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour that pose dangers to windows, roofs, siding, and the people being hit with all of these things flying around in the gale. If you want to track where the storm is, iMap Weather has what appears to be a live visualization of the storm, including many of the projected paths.

Expect updates here throughout the torrent; if power outages prevent us from posting on the blog, we’ll keep tweeting at @theDBK. If you see anything people should know about, please comment here or tweet at us. Flooding, power outages, damage, dementors, you get the idea. Be careful, folks, and try not to drown or get wind-murdered by a flying chunk of house.

“Being from out of state I usually say ‘Maryland’ because as a respectable state school, people understand what I mean,” freshman architecture major Bridget Maley said.
For years this university has flip-flopped between the abbreviations “UM” and “UMD,” but all it took was a June Diamondback column to get administrators to decide on one official nickname: “UMD.”

“Even we in the Office of Marketing and Communications have been uneven in its application,” university spokesman Millree Williams wrote in an email. “The recent DBK opinion piece, among other references to the confusion created by ‘UM’ — especially in national media — only added a sense of urgency.”

And while students, staff and the media may still use “Maryland,” “University of Maryland,” and “The University of Maryland, College Park” interchangeably, having an official abbreviation puts this university one step closer to securing its identity.

Several students said the most important change that comes with using “UMD” is setting this university apart from the pack of schools that go by “UM.”
“There are a lot of states that start with M, so having UMD is easy to recognize as Maryland” freshman government and politics major Jasmine Jones said.
And now that administrators and public relations officials are all on the same page, Williams said such mix-ups are problems of the past.

“We believe that it will help us take a closer step toward distinguishing the University of Maryland, College Park from the myriad of other UMs out there,” he said.

— Rhiannon Walker

There was a DJ, game of pong and over a hundred people — but it wasn’t a frat party.

The 2013 Class Council hosted a donation drive at the Eppley Recreation Center’s outdoor pool last night to collect old shoes, clothes, money and cans of soup to be given to My Sister’s Place — a non-profit organization that offers battered women and their children shelter and programs in Washington.

Although donations were mandatory, council Vice President of Marketing Kristen Fiery said the group also provided incentives, providing students with one raffle ticket for each given item. Students could win prizes including a Nintendo Wii, a $100 Visa gift card and Skullcandy headphones.

“We also encouraged people to donate because the more donations they [brought] — money, a can of food, T-shirts or sneakers — the better chance they have of winning,” Fiery said.

The event also hosted splash contests, water balloon tossing contests, chicken wing eating contests, cornhole tournaments and water pong tournaments.

“Our main goal was just to get a large group of people here for the whole duration and not just come get food and leave,” Fiery said. “We were hoping that it will be one of the biggest events we have thrown since freshman year just because we now have more connections and a better idea of how to run things.”

And students came from different all classes to check out the event — and to donate.

“Our friend was coming from our sorority so we decided to come, too, even though we aren’t sophomores,” freshman Russian and government and politics major Peyton Wilson said of she and her friend junior public health major Brittany Merek.

“We’re really glad we came, we’re having a lot of fun,” Merek added.

From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., students from every class swam, played basketball and ate free pizza and Rita’s water ice. At the end of the event, the donated items spanned several folding tables.

“It was a success, a really, really big success,” said class president and sophomore business major Joseph Sakla.

— By Erin Egan

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., DEA officials collected 27 pounds of over-the-counter and prescription drugs as part of National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day — an initiative that began in September to let people get rid of unused or unwanted prescription drugs — for the second time at this university.

Even though officials did not collect as much as last year, when they collected 49 pounds of drugs, DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Carl Kotowski said any drug collected prevents potential abuse.

Last year, the DEA collected 245,000 pounds of drugs from take-backs across the country, and about 3,700 of those pounds came from this state, DEA Special Agent Melissa Bell said. Data from this year’s collection are not yet available.

Kotowski said drug collections like Saturday’s, outside University Police headquarters near Route 1, gather pain killers like Vicodin, Percocet and Oxycodone and stimulants like Ritalin and Valium.

Bell said the purpose of having this event is two-fold.

First, there’s no proper mechanism for disposing of unwanted drugs currently, so there’s a good chance they’ll be thrown away or flushed down the toilet and contaminate the water. Second, there’s a high chance the unused drugs could be abused.

“Most young people don’t think it’s a big deal, that because they got it from a doctor or a pharmacist that it’s safer than going and finding a seller on the street,” Bell said. “But they don’t know what’s going into their bodies and what it could do to them.”

The pamphlet from Saturday’s event said the non-medical use of prescription drugs ranks second only to marijuana as the most common form of drug abuse in the country. Most prescription drugs are found in the family medicine cabinet, it said.

The DEA advises that, other than dropping drugs off on National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, the best way to get rid of drugs is to take the medications out of their bottles, mix them with something unappealing “like used kitty litter or coffee grounds,” seal them in a bag or disposable container and throw them away.

— Erin Egan and Leah Villanueva