Navy Yard

I was woken just around half past eight this morning by an awful lot of sirens attached to fast-moving vehicles charging down the street outside the hotel. My hotel is the Courtyard Marriott Navy Yard at 140 L St SE - a few blocks or so away from the Navy Yard, where there's been a major shooting incident this morning.

All of the shooting was confined to the base itself, not anywhere else, although the police did cordon off large amounts of the area and close the subway station. The hotel locked the front entrance, so you needed a key to get in or out and they had placed some security guards there too. The hotel recommended that people didn't leave, so I had breakfast and went back to my room to watch it on the television. You couldn't see anything from my room, as I'm on the wrong side - I look down towards the metro station, not the yard itself.

Later on in the day, although the area is now open again, the Nationals, in conjunction with the local security services and Major League Baseball decided to postpone tonight's series opener against the Atlanta Braves as a mark of respect. The game has been rescheduled as part of a split double-header tomorrow, which is a problem for me, as I won't be here. So I shall have to return to Washington again next year to use my ticket for a so-called "value" game (i.e. a game against a not-very-good opponent).