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Heavy rain and flooding creates delays in today’s morning commute Heavy rain floods some low-lying areas in the region
(about 9 hours later)
Heavy rainfall swept through the D.C. region Friday morning, causing a messy commute as roadways flooded, authorities rescued drivers from streets with high water, schools in parts of Virginia closed and trains were delayed. The region’s turgid rivers ran milk-chocolate brown Friday as they dragged along all the debris that washed from their banks, thick with the nitrogen and phosphorus from spring lawn fertilizing that is toxic to marine plants and animals.
Much of the region was under a flood warning as heavy rains and winds hit the area throughout the morning commute. Much of the District, Alexandria, Fairfax, Montgomery and Arlington counties were also under a flash-flood watch. In flood-prone places, the water, driven by several inches of overnight and early morning rainfall, rose up to invade the habitat of humans, flooding the Alexandria waterfront and downtown Annapolis. Roads throughout the region were closed by flooding, and several drivers had to be rescued from stranded vehicles after they attempted to ford pools of standing water.
The D.C. region saw between 2 and 4 inches of rain, according to the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang. In Purcellville, there were 4.25 inches of rain. At Dulles International Airport, there was 3.88 inches of rain. And from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., 1.11 inches came down at Reagan National Airport. Rock Creek, the Anacostia and the Potomac all swelled beyond their banks, leaving a muddy residue behind as the water receded. The sun returned to most of the region by afternoon, and a pleasant weekend was forecast, but the Potomac was expected to continue to flush heavy rain from its headwaters.
A tornado warning was issued for southern Loudoun and western Fauquier counties just before 4 a.m., but there were no reports of a touchdown. Rain and flooding were expected to end mid-morning. The rain largely washed out what was to be Bike to Work Day on Friday, with many riders abandoning those plans.
There were few serious crashes reported on major highways in the morning commute, but authorities warned drivers to slow down in heavy rain and not drive along roadways that have high, standing water. “Bike to work day is now boat to work day,” Virginia Del. K. Robert Krupicka Jr., a Democrat from Alexandria, wrote in a Twitter message.
In Montgomery County, authorities said they were involved in several water rescues of drivers who tried to cross flooded roadways. None involved serious injuries, according to fire and rescue officials. A downed tree caused part of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at NASA in Greenbelt to be blocked, creating some minor delays in the early morning hours. Amid concerns that the deluge would cause further instability along Piscataway Drive, a Fort Washington neighborhood where homes were evacuated earlier this month after the land beneath them became unstable, Prince George’s County officials rushed to the scene. Erosion caused by the rain widened a crack in the street by about four inches, said county spokesman Scott Peterson, but the houses remained.
Many local police jurisdictions were reminding drivers of their phrase: “Turn around, don’t drown.” “One of the biggest fears I had was the fact that I was going to wake up in the morning, come down here and see all this flooded down here,” said County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D). “So I’m glad we’re able to save these houses here and stop really the escalation of this.”
In Virginia, there were several troubled spots. A driver was rescued after going through high water on Hunter Mill Road in Vienna. Authorities also closed dozens of roads in Fairfax County. Trees blocked roads in Reston, West Springfield, Mt. Vernon and Fair Oaks. Parts of Route 15 in Loudoun County were closed. The D.C. region saw between 2 and 4 inches of rain, according to The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang. In Purcellville, 4.25 inches of rain was recorded. Dulles International Airport had 3.88 inches of rain, and from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., 1.11 inches came down at Reagan National Airport.
Friday was Bike to Work Day but many riders may abandon those plans, given the weather. The excessive rainfall caused a sanitary sewer overflow in Damascus, Md., as water overwhelmed the Spring Garden Estates Wastewater Pumping Station and caused 45,000 gallons to flow from a nearby manhole, with some debris making it into Little Bennett Creek. The wastewater overflow did not affect drinking water, according to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.
“Bike to work day is now boat to work day,” Virginia state Del. Rob Krupicka, a Democrat from Alexandria wrote in a Twitter message. It’s common for hard rains to flood the Alexandria waterfront, and that happened again Friday. As the water rises, residents have come to expect television camera crews to show up at the foot of King or Prince streets. Friday, the water had almost reached Union Street at Prince at about 10 a.m., and then receded by a dozen or more feet by 11:30 a.m.
In the District, U.S. Park Police closed Rock Creek Parkway in both directions from Calvert Street to Waterside Drive for several hours Friday morning. Officials also closed Beach Drive because of flooding, along with South Capitol Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Haines Point in the District was also closed. Large pools of water stymied some bikers on the Mount Vernon Trail along George Washington Parkway as well as drivers coming off the riverside road onto Memorial Bridge in Virginia. On the opposite side of the Potomac, another regularly flooded road, River Road, was among those closed for a time.
On the MARC commuter rail system, service was suspended on the Brunswick and Martinsburg lines because of downed trees on the tracks. On roads that stayed open, some drivers battled the water, unsuccessfully.
Several school districts in parts of Virginia, including Shenandoah, Warren and Frederick, were closed because of the weather. A Loudoun County woman was rescued after she pulled out of her driveway on Tail Race Road into more water than her vehicle could handle. She took refuge on the hood of her car while rescuers paddled a boat to retrieve her.
A Pepco worker was reported hospitalized after being injured while working in the heavy rain in Montgomery County, according to the utility company. No other details were immediately available. In Fairfax County, emergency workers rescued 10 people early in the morning who were trapped in their cars after attempting to drive through flooded areas, though nobody was seriously injured, county officials said.
About 1,000 customers of Dominion Virginia Power lost power after overnight storms. Most of those customers are in Fairfax County. Pepco said it has about 1,500 customers without power, mostly in Montgomery County. Other utility companies said they have a handful of power outages. The intense rain led to flooding along 45 roads in the county, most of them near creeks and streams that were over capacity, said county spokesman Tony Castrilli. Other roadways were shut down because of trees that had been knocked down, he said.
Some residents in the Fort Washington area of Prince George’s County nervously watched to see if there will be another landslide from the rain after they have already had problems with heavy rainfall this spring. The Maryland State Highway Administration closed about a dozen roads because of the rain, but most of them were in Frederick County and in rural areas, said Dave Buck, a spokesman for the state highway system.
Debbi Kutzleb, who was told to leave her home in the Piscataway Hills neighborhood last week, said Prince George’s county workers tried to prepare for the deluge. By 12:30 p.m., the region’s roads were clearing up as the skies cleared, and creeks and streams already were receding, Castrilli said.
They laid drainage pipes to send rainwater down the hill and created berms on Piscataway Drive to corral water around the spot where a massive crack made it impassable a week ago. Kutzleb also said workers dug out deeper culverts along the roadway and reinforced it with more asphalt. Dana Hedgpeth, Lynh Bui, Peter Hermann, Arelis R. Hernandez, Lori Aratani and Rachel Weiner contributed to this story.
“This is a good test for what they’ve done down there,” she said. “We’ll see how it will hold up.” Get updates on your area delivered via e-mail
Kutzleb has inspected the work every day since she was displaced and is worried the latest rain could aggravate the landslide.
Ken Archer and his wife, Sue Howland, have been staying at a hotel while trying to find temporary homes for their 20 cats since the slide closed the road. It is costing them about $1,100 a week for lodging, he said. He is estimating it will be three months before they are back in their home.
“I’ve been crushed in between two cars and survived,” said Archer, who is an amputee. “I can handle this but I’m not optimistic.”
Kutzleb said she plans on returning to the neighborhood in a few hours to see how the slope held up overnight.
“It was pouring,” she said.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission said it released water from the T. Howard Ducketts Dam in Laurel on Thursday in anticipation of the heavy rains. This came after some residents in Laurel had to evacuate their homes along the Patuxent River two weeks ago when the dam was opened during a heavy rain storm.
Lynh Bui, Peter Hermann, Arelis R. Hernandez, Lori Aratani and Rachel Weiner contributed to this story.