Penn Quarter prepares for Hurricane Irene

By now, Pepco has probably already made your phone ring this morning, warning you of the outages expected for the days ahead, and that they "expect the restoration to extend over multiple days."

While Penn Quarter has underground wires and is located very centrally to the power transformer on 8th Street between D and E, residents of the Lansburgh will surely tell you that Penn Quarter is not impervious to power outages. So, a friendly reminder you've surely heard already: it's time to start preparing.

WMATA has also issued a statement, saying that they've already placed 2,000 sandbags throughout the Metro system, to try and stem some of the rampant flooding some of the metro stations have seen in the past. NBC reporter Luke Russert spotted some on 7th Street.

If flooding has been a problem in your condo or apartment in the past, the Department of Public Works is handing out five sandbags per household, starting today at noon. The entrance is at New Jersey Avenue and I Street, SE and staff will be on hand to direct residents to the distribution point. Distribution will continue through midnight tonight, then resume at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday through midnight. You'll be asked to show D.C. identification.

Be sure to charge your cell phones and laptops - we here at Penn Quarter Insider will do our best to report throughout the weekend with updates here and on Twitter at @PQInsider. We'll be keeping an eye on PEPCO, WMATA and other area resources, while also trying to provide a list of restaurants that stay open during the brunt of the storm - hope to see you there!