State leaders figuring up real costs of Isabel

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham This time last year, Gov. Mark Warner was working with state-agency heads to figure out how to chop hundreds of millions of dollars from the biennial state budget to account for an expected revenue shortfall. This year, the governor and state leaders are busy trying to make sure that Hurricane Isabel…

Looking back at Hurricane Isabel

Chris Graham

Compiled by Chris Graham  Tim Spears was surveying the damage wrought by the South River on his downtown-Waynesboro music store Friday afternoon. “It could’ve been a lot worse,” said Spears, owner of Tim Spears’ Music City – which is located just a city block away from the South River. Spears estimated the damage to his…

Calm before the storm

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham  Depending on whom you believe, Hurricane Isabel is either going to enter and then leave Western Virginia like a lion – or like a lamb. Weather forecasters are offering predictions that rainfall amounts in the Shenandoah Valley associated with the powerful storm – which is on track to make landfall in…

Ready to rumble: Residents prepare for Isabel

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director Ben Carter was thinking of Hurricane Camille on Tuesday. Many locals do look back at Camille whenever the region is in the crosshairs of a hurricane – as is the case right now with Isabel making a beeline for Western Virginia. But Carter…

Snack time

Chris Graham

Stop the Presses column by Chris Graham Us American fat-slob types are always getting together for lunch. Or dinner. Or breakfast. And then we eat like “Survivor” contestants moments after they’re allowed to eat something other than berries and rats for the first time in 40 days. Which is to say, like a pack of…