The remnants of Hurricane Jeanne swept into the Washington, D.C., area today, bringing heavy rains, flash flood warnings and widespread tornado watches affecting the District, Virginia and Maryland.
In its latest advisories, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for:
| | | | | | | | | | ___ What to Do ___
• If a tornado watch is issued, it means that a tornado is possible.
• If a tornado warning is issued, it means that a tornado has actually been spotted, or is strongly indicated on radar and it is time to go to a safe shelter immediately. Indoors:
Avoid windows. Go to the lowest floor: a basement or small center room (like a bathroom or closet). Crouch as low as possible to the floor, facing down. Cover your head with your hands. Cover yourself with some sort of thick padding (mattress, blankets) to protect against falling debris. In a car or truck:
Vehicles are extremely dangerous in a tornado. Park the vehicle, get out and seek shelter in a sturdy building. Avoid seeking shelter under bridges, which offer little protection against flying debris. Outdoors:
Lie flat and face-down on low ground, protecting the back of your head with your arms. Get as far away from trees and cars as you can; they may be blown onto you. | | | | | | |
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• Loudoun County in Virginia until 8:15 p.m. ET;
• Montgomery County in Maryland and much of the rest of Northern Virginia, including Fairfax, Fauquier and Prince William counties and the cities of Fairfax, Manassas and Manassas Park, until 9 p.m.;
• and Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties in Maryland until 9:30 p.m.
The weather service said small creeks and streams were overflowing across the area and that today's torrential rains would continue to cause flooding through this evening.
The weather service said more than 3 inches of rain had fallen by about 5 p.m. in parts of Fairfax County and that another inch or two of rainfall was possible.
At least one death was reported in the state: that of a southwestern Virginia woman whose mobile home was hit by a flash flood.
By 5 p.m., the remnants of Jeanne were centered about 10 miles west of Washington, D.C. The system was producing maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and moving northeast about 29 mph, the weather service reported.
It said isolated tornadoes were possible this evening over parts of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Watches for floods and flash floods extended up the Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Massachusetts.
As the system, now a tropical depression, pushed into the Washington area from the south, the National Weather Service declared tornado watches this afternoon for the capital and surrounding jurisdictions until 9 p.m.
Emergency management officials in Loudoun County reported that many roads were flooded and that Route 50 was closed between Aldie and Middleburg. In the town of Purcellville, part of Main Street was closed by the flooding. The weather service predicted an additional one to two inches of rainfall in the area before early evening, when the rain was expected to taper off.
The Loudoun County sheriff's office warned motorists not to drive through standing water on a roadway during flash flood conditions.
Loudoun canceled all after-school activities because of the potential for flooding, as did neighboring Fauquier County.
Among the places affected by the tornado watches were the Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William and the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church and Manassas. In Maryland, tornado watches were also in effect until 9 p.m. for Montgomery and Prince George's counties, the city of Baltimore and a number of other jurisdictions across the state.
Before its arrival in the Washington area, Jeanne's remnants left flooding and wind damage across a swath of the southeastern United States after slamming into Florida early Sunday.
In Patrick County, in the southwestern part of Virginia, a woman was reported killed this morning when flood waters swept her mobile home off its foundation.
Authorities said rescuers found her body this morning about 75 yards from her mobile home, which had been turned on its side by waters that flooded an adjacent creek about a mile north of the border with North Carolina. The mobile home had about two feet of water inside it, Sheriff David Hubbard said, according to the Associated Press.
Jeanne dumped as much as 12 inches of rain in Patrick County, causing widespread flooding throughout the area.
Two Jeanne-related deaths were also reported today in South Carolina, where the storm flooded roads and spawned tornadoes. One man died near Ridgeway, S.C., early today when his mobile home was apparently hit by a tornado, and another man was killed late Monday near Winnsboro, S.C., when his car ran off a rain-slicked road and hit a utility pole, AP reported.
