Valve

RONNIE LOTT, Rod Woodson, Ed Reed. It may be premature, but it's tempting to check the list of Pro Bowl/Hall of Fame defensive backs who were big-hitting, ball-hawking game-breakers and wonder how and where Ravens safety Ed Reed stacks up. Two weeks. Two games. Two Ravens' wins, courtesy of No. 20. That doesn't even account for the sack, forced fumble and recovery Reed ran back 22 yards for a touchdown in the Ravens' win over the Redskins, a score that commenced a string of 17 unanswered points for the Ravens.

Anne Arundel County residents were warned away from a section of the South River yesterday after 10,000 gallons of wastewater flowed into Granville Creek because of a valve failure Sunday evening. The spill occurred at Woodside and Meadow Roads, county officials said. Crews repaired the valve Sunday night. County health officials said people should avoid contact with water in Granville Creek and in the South River near the Sylvan Shores community. Those areas will remain closed until tests show the sewage spill is no longer affecting water quality.

For Liz Abate, choosing a new medical treatment without much of a track record was not as scary as the way she was living. Abate suffered from gastroesophageal reflux disease, better known as GERD. The Towson resident had to sleep sitting up because of severe heartburn. And not keeping food down was a common problem at all times of the day. She took medicine and followed a strict diet of eating little or no fried, spicy or acidic foods. And she made sure she ate early in the evening, well before she went to bed. But instead of medication and lifestyle changes helping, her problem worsened.

A broken water valve in an underground pipe on U.S. 40 at Rogers Avenue in Ellicott City affected operations in Howard County's George Howard Building yesterday, and repairs will disrupt traffic tomorrow night, county officials said. James M. Irvin, the county public works director, said county workers tried to repair the valve early yesterday but postponed the job after finding it would be more complex than first thought. As a result, the valve bringing water down Rogers Avenue to the county government complex was closed to stop water leakage, and rerouting the flow caused another blockage to the George Howard Building.

There was just one patient on the operating table, but two lives were at stake. Doctors had urged Omayma Ahmad to end her pregnancy before undergoing an aortic valve replacement - a complex surgery in which her heart would be stopped and a machine would take over circulation of her blood. The operation wasn't just risky for her: It was even more dangerous to her unborn child. "They said, `The chances that the baby will survive are less than 40 percent,'" Ahmad, a native of Sudan, recalled.

MOSCOW - Police said yesterday that they were searching for two homeless men who might have stolen gas valves from an apartment building in northern Russia in order to sell them, leading to a huge predawn explosion that left at least 41 people dead. But a municipal official said the utility lines in Arkhangelsk, 600 miles north of Moscow, were so poorly maintained that simple deterioration also could have caused the blast. A deputy to the top regional emergency official said the dead included five children.

Robert Abplanalp, 81, a confidant of President Richard Nixon and inventor who changed aerosol technology, died of cancer Saturday in Bronxville, N.Y. In 1969, Mr. Abplanalp lent Nixon the money to buy the 29-acre property at San Clemente, Calif., that became the western White House. After Nixon resigned over Watergate in 1974, Mr. Abplanalp flew to California to be with him. Mr. Abplanalp ran the Precision Valve Corp., which he started in 1949 to manufacture a patented aerosol valve. This plastic model could be mass produced, and was more efficient.

A water-valve leak in Baltimore's Guilford neighborhood caused flood damage to 10 homes near a pumping station at Old Cold Spring Lane and Underwood Road, the city Department of Public Works reported. Robert H. Murrow, a DPW spokesman, said the leak occurred after routine maintenance on water valves and released a cascade of water into an alley near the Guilford pumping station and reservoir. Water damaged several yards and basements in the area, Murrow said. About a dozen Public Works employees were dispatched to the scene and halted the leak about 8 p.m., Murrow said.

About six years ago, during a hard freeze with snow on the ground, I heard a sound like paper tearing, but louder, beyond my rear fence. It came from the direction of my neighbors' front porch. I crunched through the snow, stepped over the fence and followed the sound. A stream of water from under my neighbor's porch was tearing at the icy crust on the snow, making the racket. An old galvanized steel supply pipe under the porch had frozen and finally burst. The elderly ladies in the house hadn't heard a thing but took me at my word and let me into their basement to close the cutoff valve on the damaged pipe.

Get out. We have bikes to peddle, walks to take, birds to view. There's wood to stack, boats to winterize, blinds to scout. It's supposed to be a pretty day in the middle of what is, for some, a long holiday weekend (Or at least that's what the weather-guesser said Friday). You get the idea. It's been two months since the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, and folks are still trying to find a rhythm. A fellow outdoors writer pointed out that foliage season came and went last month with scarcely a mention.