No Rest for the Wet and Weary

With an eye on Maryland's rain-swollen Patuxent River, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens (D) asked last night that residents of low-lying communities in the Laurel area head for shelter.

Also last night, the District, prompted in part by the predictions of more rain, declared a state of emergency to aid in the mobilization of resources.

As heavy rain fell in the evening, washed-out streets and downed signal lights on several major commuter routes left drivers stuck across the city. Traffic lights turned green on other major thoroughfares, such as K Street NW, but drivers went nowhere. Cars jammed intersections, and the honk of horns filled the humid evening air.

D.C. Transportation Department spokesman Erik Linden said the backups were primarily caused by downed signals on Constitution and Independence avenues. "If you can avoid driving, it really very much helps us out," he said.

Bus passengers were stuck in the same backups. Metro's Orange Line trains were so crowded that some riders at downtown stations had to wait for several trains to pass before they could get on. They said their trips home were delayed by as much as an hour.

Metro workers added sump pumps and positioned 12 tons of sandbags near vent shafts and grates at Federal Triangle, Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter and other vulnerable stations to prevent a repeat of the flooding that hobbled the transit system Monday.

In a preemptive move, the District placed a team of arborists on patrol last night to make quick assessments of weakening tree trunks and damaged limbs in hopes of keeping problems from worsening. Significant damage has affected about 250 trees since the storms started, one of the arborists said.

The Old Post Office building and the Ariel Rios Federal Building in downtown Washington remained closed yesterday, and federal officials announced that the headquarters of the Justice Department, Internal Revenue Service and National Archives would stay shut for the rest of the week. The National Zoo opened for most of the day, but only for visitors who arrived on foot.

Power was still a problem for some. As of last night, about 6,000 customers were without power in Maryland and the District, most in Montgomery County, Pepco said. That was down from about 8,000 a few hours earlier. In Virginia, about 3,700 customers were without power as of late yesterday, according to Dominion Virginia Power. By 9:30 p.m., the figure was less than 1,000.

The Fairfax County government was considering an evacuation of the Belle View and New Alexandria communities, which flooded during Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

Fire officials in Fairfax announced that 160 homes were damaged in the Arlington Terrace area Sunday night when Cameron Run overflowed, crashing through basement windows and destroying cars, which in some cases were immersed by the waves. Three of those homes were "red-tagged," meaning the damage was beyond repair and the houses had to be condemned.

In Bethesda, residents along the 4300 block of Sleaford Road were irate yesterday because they had been without power since Sunday morning. Those grumbling about traffic tie-ups and soppy shoes were getting little sympathy from Barry Blandford, who said he got a two-day runaround from Pepco.