Ocean City

After 14 hours of watching Sandy storm coverage, I am convinced that no one deserves more praise than the reporters and camerapersons on the ground in places like Ocean City. I know in these snarky, all-you-need-is-irony, postmodern times, lots of folks, including some journalists who should know better, like to make fun of TV reporters standing in high winds and driving rain or snow to report on a storm. I could not disagree more. The image of a correspondent being pounded by the elements is as crystal-clear an objective correlative for the core role of journalism as I can imagine.

- The beeping and rumbling of backhoes shoveling sand and debris replaced the howl of Hurricane Sandy's winds as cleanup from the storm began Tuesday, though higher than normal tides continued to threaten some areas with further damage. The storm's impact was evident across the resort town, with some lingering floodwaters along Assawoman Bay and sand, seaweed and pieces of wood littering the ground from which water already receded. Beaches eroded significantly, narrowed to only a few dozen yards in some areas.

Local coverage of Hurricane Sandy has been going on since Friday night -- if you want to be technical about it. But it really kicked into gear over the weekend. Saturday night, WBFF Fox45 messed up stretches of the World Series to run mostly unnecessary crawls about the impending storm. I don't mind needless information in crawls -- it has become the norm on cable -- but every time a crawl appeared, the audio of the game from Fox was screwed up. During several stretches, it was a full five seconds behind the action viewers saw on the field.

By Monday evening, Hurricane Sandy's remains surrounded Ocean City . From the east, the evening high tide, a full moon and a 7-foot storm surge sent waves crashing over dunes in some spots. To the west, a white-capped Assawoman Bay overflowed onto the narrow barrier island. Gusts whipping to near-hurricane force turned gaps between high rises into wind tunnels. A decision by town officials to close the Route 90 bridge to nonemergency traffic at 5 p.m. meant there was nothing for those who stayed behind to do but wait, or call for help.

As Sandy pounds the mid-Atlantic coast Monday, the Baltimore region is bracing for gale-force winds and flooding. The area remains under a flood watch through Tuesday evening, with coastal flooding expected late Monday into Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rain, as much as six inches, and high winds, with gusts as much as 70 miles per hour, will occur throughout Monday afternoon and well into Tuesday, according to forecasters. Mandatory travel restrictions will be imposed in Baltimore at 6 p.m. on Monday and stay in effect until noon on Tuesday, banning driving on city streets for everyone but emergency personnel.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has canceled Monday's early voting in Maryland due to Hurricane Sandy's expected arrival. Government offices and schools around the region also have announced that they plan to close Monday, and most flights out of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport have been canceled. More than 200 flights scheduled to land at or leave from BWI Monday had already been canceled as of Sunday evening, according to FlightStats.com. Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for the airport, said most carriers had indicated they would cancel all flights Monday and monitor the storm to make a decision about Tuesday and Wednesday.

Residents and tourists deserted downtown Ocean City on Sunday afternoon after officials ordered an evacuation of the town's southernmost blocks as Hurricane Sandy began to whip the shores. But at the Purple Moose Saloon on the Boardwalk, owner Gary Walker was waiting until the very last moment to close up. With a single customer nursing a beer at around 3 p.m., he wasn't holding out for a surge of business. Rather, Walker said he wasn't impressed by the power Sandy had shown so far. Despite the evacuation south of 17th Street, he planned to stay near the bar through the storm - or inside it if the storm worsened, on a single mattress made up with clean sheets in the back of the bar, under black lights and a disco ball.

When a man willingly jumps from 24 miles above the Earth and lives, there is going to be some buzz. On the heels of Austrian Felix Baumgartner's record-setting "supersonic" skydive from the stratosphere last Sunday, the skydiving community in Maryland is thrilled with what the accomplishment could mean for the sport's future. "I think everyone in our sport is enthusiastic about it," said Josh Dolan, the operations manager for the Ocean City Skydiving Center. "Everyone is really excited.

The eerie sound of a pipe organ fills the air on Ocean City 's boardwalk as families, couples and solitary fans enter the seaside ride filled with severed heads, torture chambers and other ghoulish delights. Trimper's Haunted House is a vacation staple that has stood in the same location since 1964. But this boardwalk icon is far more than a nostalgic reminder of summers past. The house is an important part of the legacy of Bill Tracy, master of dark rides, those amusement park staples that ferry patrons through interiors where lighting, sound and creative displays are designed to amuse - or terrify.

Ask Randy Davis how he got into the business of offering carriage rides and he'll tell you it was by accident. The Salisbury resident said he was given his first halflinger -- the type of horse he uses to pull his carriages -- several years ago. He then purchased a carriage so he and his wife could go for drives. It wasn't long before a friend asked why he wasn't trying to make money with his horse and carriage. "Before you knew it, we were in the park doing rides," Davis said.