Roads, Rails, Federal Offices Deluged

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Torrential Rainfall Pounds D.C. Region
Treacherous thunderstorms swept the region, causing damage and delays in the Washington area.

When the wet air mass hits the front, lines of thunderstorms and showers form, creating what meteorologists call a "training effect" of nearly continuous storms. These are moving from the south-southwest to the north-northeast, on a route roughly paralleling Interstate 95.

"It sounds like a broken record. Rain through Tuesday, Tuesday night, Wednesday, Thursday, possible through Sunday," said Jackie Hale, a National Weather Service spokeswoman. "Here's some good news: They don't mention rain for next Monday."

The Weather Service put a flash flood warning into effect for the area through 1:45 a.m. today. A flash flood watch remains in effect throughout this evening.

The Potomac River could surpass its flood stage of 10 feet tomorrow and might reach 12 to 13 feet Thursday, National Weather Service forecaster Andy Woodcock said.

Lightning triggered at least five fires. Not even torrential rains could douse the intense blaze that drew 75 firefighters and eight tank trucks from Howard, Carroll, Montgomery and Frederick counties to the Howard home of James and Iola Smith.

During the blaze, "it would boom," said James Smith, describing how the fire raged and spread through his spacious five-year-old home. "It was like it was walking."

The most harrowing tales came from the highways, where drivers were suddenly and severely smacked by mudslides or fast-moving walls of water.

Alexandria Police Sgt. Mark Bergin said he was standing in waist-deep water helping people out of their cars Sunday night when things got really bad. A desperate call came across the police radio that children were in fast-flooding vehicles on Telegraph Road just off the Beltway.

Several officers rushed to the scene, including one who was on his way home from vacation. "They saw people on top of cars, they saw a baby on top of a car being held by people as water was rushing. Their descriptions were biblical, incredibly fast-rising water, in the space of a minute, rising two, three, four feet. This isn't just water. This is dark, rushing water, cars moving, turning over sideways, rolling over in the current," Bergin said.

He said the officers, with help from the fire department, got everyone out. Oddly, though, two men who were saved along with the baby jumped back into the water after they were rescued and had to be rescued again.

Their thanks? "These two guys hit the officers, swung on them for no reason," Bergin said, adding that they went back into the raging waters "we think for their cellphones."

They are now safe, dry and in jail.