Photos
Tropical Storm Ernesto
A state of emergency is declared in Washington, D.C. and Virginia as Tropical Storm Ernesto moves toward the region, prompting residents and businesses to take precautions to avoid a repeat of June's flood damage.

Dominion Power was working at full staff and had called in extra contractors from nearby areas. Pepco employees were told to keep their cell phones and pagers nearby and to come to work with a bag packed so they could go where the storm hit hardest, spokesman Robert Dobkins said.

By 5.p.m. Dominion Power was working to restore electricity to 307,000 customers throughout Virginia. Baltimore Gas and Electric reported 34,424 outages and Pepco estimated 28,696.

Emergency officials everywhere issued warnings, especially for holiday travelers.

"A tropical depression doesn't mean that you can't drive and doesn't mean that you can't be outside," Marc LaFountaine of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said. "But a tropical depression is a reason to not do unnecessary driving. When people look at their travel plans, they should ask, 'Do I really need to be out on the road or do I really need to be out on the road right now?'"

For the most part, the toll of yesterday's storm depended on where one was standing -- in a flooded yard, or under the shelter of an awning, sipping an iced tea.

Alex Cochrane, a 28-year-old Manassas resident, sat slouched in a chair under the eaves of a Starbucks on Sudley Road, with the tea in front of him on the table. He was in no rush to drink it. "It's my last weekend of vacation time," he said, staring at the rain. "I was planning to go swimming."

Instead, he settled into his new plan.

"Chilling at Starbucks," Cochrane said.

Few of Friday's other latte-seekers expressed any worries about their homes flooding. Katie Jacoby, 30, of Manassas, said she thought it was "nice out," and that she welcomed the storms after a hot, dry August.

"My plants are happy," she said, "and if my plants are happy, I'm happy."

As for those already at the their weekend destination, there was nothing to do but cope.

In Ocean City, a few plastic-wrapped visitors bent into the wind to see what a tropical storm felt like. A couple in a jeep watched through the windshield shaking their heads and snapping pictures of the wild sea. Cars created breakers of a different sort along the coastal highway as they whacked large pools of standing water and some played dodge ball with garbage cans and milk crates that skittered across the road.

At a Sunsations store, Stephanie Resser and her brother were killing time shopping. They were leaving early, chased away from an annual family gathering by the weather and car troubles. "It sucks, but I'm still going to have to pay for a tanning bed when I get home," said Resser, who lives in Shiremans Town, Pa.

The malls, roads and hotels all seemed eerily vacant. But business thrived at the movie theatre, where manager Andrew Seyler called it the "busiest day for the past couple weeks."

The Liquor Mart also faired well.

"For this period of the day it's pretty steady," Cristina Camaras, 26, a Romanian student who came to Ocean City to work for the summer.

"The bars will be packed today -- stay in, watch TV and drink all day," a patron interjected before heading out the door with a bottle of Appletini mix and a bottle of Jagermesiter.

Staff writers Fredrick Kunkle, Nick Miroff, Robert Samuels, Paul Schwarzman and William Wan contributed to this report.