By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 5, 2006 9:22 AM

After heavy rains last week, storms with lightning and strong winds yesterday afternoon tore into what had been a hot, happy and dry Mall celebration of the Fourth of July, forcing thousands to retreat to monuments, cars and even portable toilets. But skies soon cleared, and the glittering flash of the capital's annual fireworks display went off as scheduled.

Thunderstorms had rolled into the District hours earlier, sending abandoned baby carriages and trash cans rolling around as holiday visitors scurried into Metro stations for cover. About 5 p.m., police on bullhorns warned people on the Mall to find shelter and evacuated those who had arrived early. They said that the winds could be ferocious and stirred fears that the evening's festivities would be canceled -- and that last month's deluge was returning.

The Washington area had record rainfall in June, with the National Weather Service in Sterling firing off 150 flash-flood warnings last week between Sunday and Tuesday -- more than twice the number it issued in 2005.

Nearly 1,000 people in the District, Maryland and Virginia who were still without power yesterday after Sunday's storms saw their ranks grow last night. More than 87,000 homes in the area were without power by 10:40 p.m. Utility officials said they had reports of 182 wires down and 120 trees toppled.

As of 5 a.m. today, power had been restored to many homes. Pepco reported 6,478 homes without power in Montgomery County, 828 homes without power in the District, and 7,444 homes without power in Prince George's County; Dominion Virginia Power was reporting 10,575 homes without power in Northern Virginia; and Baltimore Gas and Electric reported 2,378 homes without power in Anne Arundel County. The Adelphi area of Prince George's was hit particularly hard last night. In the District, few lost power, but trees were down on several streets in Northwest.

Earlier yesterday, with the rain falling and lightning dancing across the sky, Laurie and David Cohen of Silver Spring and their 12-year-old daughter, Toba, rushed into the Federal Triangle Metro station. They had been on the Mall since 10 a.m. and planned to stay through the evening show. But, with American flags poking out of her backpack, Laurie Cohen said the family would ride the Metro to a restaurant for dinner and then come back.

Many people grew frustrated waiting for the checkpoints to reopen after the thunderstorms passed. "I just wish they'd announce something," said Jack Daly, 26, of Columbia as he stood in line with his family.

A few minutes later the good news came, and the line roared with approval. "As long as we see fireworks, we're happy," said Allison Horowitz, 22, who went to the Mall with three college friends.

Three Army officers stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center also were determined to stick it out. They had bought two rain ponchos that they planned to share. "What better place to spend the Fourth of July than the capital of the country?" said Sarah Sublett, 27, from Alaska. "I get chills just saying it."

In Annapolis, the storm hit just after the city's annual parade had started about 6 p.m. Within minutes, people had scattered, and the parade was history. "It started, but it was canceled," said a police dispatcher, describing the overall scene as "thunder, lightning, wires down, roads blocked off -- a mess."

But many other area celebrations, including those in College Park and Alexandria, went off with little delay.

Earlier in the day, the problem on the Mall was not rain but temperatures soaring into the 90s. Families browsing the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's Alberta exhibit ducked for shade into tents highlighting the Canadian province's culture and climate. The fly-fishing demonstrations and photographs of glaciers seemed especially out of place.

Canadian army Sgt. Darryl Parenteau stood by the entrance of an exhibit on arctic tents designed to keep soldiers toasty in subzero temperatures. He said he was getting tired of the incessant jokes about the heat from passersby. "It's like every two minutes," he said.

Crowds poured into the Mall area, with the usual confusion. Overheard eastbound on the Orange Line, between Foggy Bottom and Farragut West:

"Do you know where we're supposed to get off?"

"Federal Triangle. You know, like the Bermuda Triangle. Everything gets lost in there."

"Yeah, like my taxes."

Cpl. Robert Goosey of Farmington, N.M., said the morning parade on Constitution Avenue was especially moving for him because it reminded him of friends from his battalion who hadn't come back from Iraq. In February, he returned from a 13-month tour stationed northeast of Baghdad. Seven members of his battalion died, which was weighing heavily on his mind.

"I was glad that I got to come home and see it. It's something else knowing that everyone here cares," he said. He sat with his family on the grass near the Washington Monument anticipating the fireworks.

Familiesdoused themselves with bottled water to escape the sun. They forked over $2 for a snow cone or orange vanilla cream bar, a burst of cool vapor escaping with every lift of the ice cream cart lid.

"We have some people with heat exhaustion, and it's mostly the elderly and some of the kids in the [marching] bands," said Officer Mario Guarin, a liaison with the D.C. police department.

Two antiwar protesters were arrested for disrupting the Constitution Avenue parade, police and protesters said. Geoffrey Mallard, 25, a disabled veteran from Iraq, and Chloe Jon-Paul, 71, were arrested by U.S. Park Police officers. Mallard and Jon-Paul were part of the Code Pink antiwar protest. Mallard walked onto the parade route and attempted to join the march, said Meada Benjamin, Code Pink's co-founder.

"He really felt that he had earned the right to walk in the parade," Benjamin said. About a dozen police officers on motorbikes and several more on horseback came to stop Mallard, Benjamin said. That's when Jon-Paul walked onto the route to stop them and defend Mallard. Both were arrested and were expected to be released later in the day, Park Police officers said. Benjamin called the arrests "a tragically ironic moment."

"I just thought how terrible it was that a veteran who earned the right to march was not allowed," she said.

Despite the heat, Michele Lowman of Ellicott City was doing things the traditional way. Decked out in red, her daughters Madison, 9, and Jordan, 6, wore dresses bearing frills with the national colors. Lowman's family flew in from Florida to join the festivities.

"I'm feeling very patriotic," she said as she pointed out the Raggedy Ann float in the parade to her daughters and nieces.

That is exactly what Satish Kumar, a U.S. citizen born in India, said he was thinking as he watched a Taiwanese band pass and listened to the pulse of a tabla drum that accompanied the Sheiks of America float.

"It gives me a sense of involvement, participation, assimilation, and certainly is a part of the American evolution for me," said Kumar, a software analyst who lives in Northern California and has been working in the District for the past two months. "See the world situation, symbolically we are saying to the world, 'We aspire to this freedom, we enjoy it, and we will do our best to keep it up.' "

National Park Service officials said they never considered canceling or postponing the fireworks. The National Weather Service was consulted, and the all-clear was given until 11 p.m. By 6:30, the crowds -- wet but determined -- had begun to return.

Many were scrounging around for cardboard boxes or other makeshift seating for the muddy ground. "If they would have canceled it, I would have been so bummed," said Leslie Boltz, 53, on vacation from Akron, Ohio.

Park officials were reluctant to estimate the size of the crowd, but one official said at least 500,000 came out for the fireworks. Those who frequent the event said there appeared to be fewer people this year.

After the fireworks, District transportation officials planned to flip a switch to change the timing of traffic lights and whisk crowds out of the city.

Officials learned Sept. 11, 2001, that a mass exodus would jam roads and Metro stations, with hundreds of people waiting for trains and thousands in gridlock. Right after last year's Fourth of July fireworks on the Mall, transportation officials tried Operation Fast Forward, a local version of the regional plan put in place last night. This year, Operation Fast Forward II wound down on schedule about 11 p.m., with organizers calling the exercise a success.

"All reports from our crews on the street . . . are so far, so good," said Erik Linden, a spokesman for the District Department of Transportation. Metro reported more than 338,000 total riders for the day by 9 p.m., with thousands more heading for the stations later on.

Staff writers Megan Greenwell, Susan Kinzie, Susan Levine, Nick Miroff, Candace Rondeaux, Shearon Roberts, Philip Rucker, Robert Samuels, Sandhya Somasherkars and Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report.