Pier

A woman rescued early Thursday from the water off a pier in Canton has died, police said. Baltimore police responded to a call at 4:48 a.m. with the Marine Unit for a woman in the water near the 2300 block of Boston St. in Canton. It's unclear how she ended up in the water. More details weren't immediately available. ywenger@baltsun.com twitter.com/yvonnewenger

A day's worth of some excellent storm coverage by CNN was all but shredded during the Piers Morgan show Monday night when meteorologist Chad Myers reported that the New York Stock Exchange was under three feet of water and the hip-shooting host ran wild with the report that turned out to be false. What a shame for all those CNN correspondents in places like Rehoboth Beach, Ocean City and Asbury Park who spent the day and night standing in cold ocean water and rain doing such a fine job of reporting the story.

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.

Joseph Abboud (Wednesday at The New York Public Library) Creative Director Bernardo Rojo offered a dramatic collection that included plenty of color, fabric options and lots of great outerwear. Presented at the New York Public Library, the collection began with one of the hottest colors of the new season -- canary yellow. There were a slew of colors to chose from: white, cream, navy, cornfield blue, coral, red, charcoal and other shades of gray to black. I was  impressed with the diversity of shapes, types of garments and fabrics and particularly loved the patent leather jackets in red and navy blue.

A CSX Corp. coal pier in Baltimore is out of service for the foreseeable future as the railroad assesses the "substantial" damage caused by a ship that hit the structure. The Bayside Coal Pier, on Benhill Avenue in Curtis Bay, was struck Saturday by a tanker headed for a dock up the channel — an unusual accident that could cause ripple effects for coal shipping. CSX said an employee was injured in the incident, hospitalized and later released. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company estimates in a federal lawsuit that the Wawasan Ruby, owned by Panama-based Trio Happiness S.A., caused more than $5 million in damage, both to the property and in revenue loss.

A fire at the South River Marina in Edgewater damaged three boats and a pier early Thursday morning, according to the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. Firefighters responded to the marina in the 1000 block of Turkey Point Road for reports of a fire about 3:50 a.m. and found two boats in flames, said Lt. Cliff Kooser, a department spokesman. A total of 21 firefighters working with the assistance of two county fire boats and a fire boat from the Annapolis Fire Department took about 20 minutes to extinguish the fire, Kooser said.

That whooshing sound you hear is a huge sigh of relief from the Pier Homes' developer and financier. The last of the luxury townhomes -- a project built on piers in Baltimore's Inner Harbor -- just sold, six years after the first buyers moved in. McWilliams Ballard, a Washington-based real estate sales team that took over the Pier Homes at HarborView project two years ago, announced the final settlements Wednesday. (They're not all on the record yet online, but nearly all are.)

The last of the luxury townhomes in a project built on piers in Baltimore's Inner Harbor has finally sold, six years after the first buyers moved in. McWilliams Ballard, a Washington-based real estate sales team that took over the Pier Homes at HarborView project in 2010, announced Wednesday that everything in the 88-unit development had settled. Nearly half the project was unsold two years ago, prompting the developer to auction off 18 of the homes at big discounts to get buyers looking again.

At this month's BET Awards, the Viewers' Choice award seemed like a battle of front-runners. Nominees Beyonce, Jay-Z and Kanye West were seated in the front row, a skip away from the podium. Chris Brown and Lil Wayne were also nominated. They all lost to four teenage boys. Mindless Behavior, the Los Angeles boy band of Prodigy, Princeton, Ray Ray and Roc Royal, bounced up to the stage to accept the night's only award decided on by fans. After catching his breath, Princeton ended his speech with a declaration.

Ruth's Chris has had a good long run in Pier 5 Hotel. It opened in the hotel's main restaurant space in 2005. But nothing seems to work in hotel's smaller restaurant space. The Peacock Grill, Pizzazz Tuscan Grill and My Panini have come and gone. But that space has an amenity that Ruth's Chris doesn't have -- a waterfront deck. Actually, that deck hasn't always been there, and none of the cafes ever took full advantage of it. Now, Ruth's Chris at Pier 5 has taken over both the cafe space, which it will be using as a banquet facility and the adjoining deck, which they will open Wednesday through Sunday nights.