By Theresa Vargas and Jennifer Lenhart
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 2, 2006; B01
What was left of Tropical Storm Ernesto delivered a heavy lashing of rain and wind to the Washington area throughout the day yesterday, prompting officials to order evacuations, declare states of emergency and open up shelters.
The brunt of the problem in Washington and its immediate suburbs appeared to be power outages caused by the high winds. Nearly 50,000 homes and businesses in Northern Virginia were without power last night. About 30,000 in the District and Maryland also were without power.
"Do all you can to stay inside. Don't go out if you don't have to," Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) said yesterday afternoon, in what seemed to become a battle cry among area emergency officials as the weather got more intense.
State and local emergency officials opened up operations centers across the region, just in case massive flooding and power outages called for additional evacuations or rescues. But most never had to fully activate. They had expected a pummeling, but got a slap. By late afternoon, the storm had been downgraded and the rain estimates had dropped significantly from the four to eight inches originally forecast.
By last night, between one and two inches of rain had fallen in most of the Washington region, the National Weather Service said. St. Mary's County, though, saw nearly six inches and the Shenandoah Valley got almost four.
Sustained winds at Reagan National Airport last night were about 30 mph with gusts over 40.
But for many residents in the region, the whole thing was mostly a nuisance -- little more than a delay to an early Labor Day weekend. But in areas south and east of the District, the storm will be remembered for a long time.
Norfolk and other Hampton Roads communities saw more than six inches of rain, flooding low-lying areas, knocking out power to more than 200,000 customers. In Richmond, more than 200 homes were evacuated and more than 90,000 cstomers without power.
But for othesr, those sill recovering from the storm in June that brought as much as 13 inches of rain to the region, just the looming threat was enough to send them stockpiling sand bags.
"I think people are apprehensive because we don't know how serious this storm is going to be," said Brian Hannigan, a spokesman for Alexandria, which saw massive flooding during June's storm. "Four inches is a lot, and eight inches is a real lot."
Meteorologist Louis Rosa, of the National Weather Service in Sterling, said the threat of flash flooding had greatly diminished by yesterday afternoon, but a swelled Potomac meant costal flooding would remain a possibility through the night. High tide was set for 2 a.m. Fairfax had opened a shelter at Edison High School as a precaution.
Locally, Southern Maryland appeared to be hardest hit. Mark O'Brien awoke yesterday at his St Mary's home to a flooded yard, and he knew instantly it was the beginning of something terrible. By noon, he and his girlfriend had moved one car half a mile inland. By afternoon, the lights and phone lines had gone out. So, with the last few hours of the daylight fading, they frantically stacked all their possessions on tables and couches -- all the while keeping an eye on the waves sloshing back and forth on what used to be their lawn.
"I would definitely call this house waterfront property now," O'Brien said by cell phone, as waves carried pieces of an old pier and random crab pots floating past his window. "Whatever we can carry with us out of here may be all we can save at this point. It's the pictures and albums, we're worried about most."
About 250 people were ordered to evacuate from their homes on St. George's Island after the only road to the mainland became submerged under two feet of water, according to emergency managements officials there.
"At this moment, St. Mary's County seems to be getting the brunt of the storm, with quite a bit of flooding in lower lying areas," said Teresa Chapman, a regional administrator with the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, who was dispatched to Southern Maryland yesterday.
County emergency management officials opened a temporary shelter at Leonardtown High School, and a shelter for pets was up and running at the county fairgrounds, Chapman said.
A slew of rain-related accidents -- mostly of the fender-bender variety -- were reported throughout the region yesterday. The highest profile mishap involed a metrobus carrying two passengers in Temple Hill was stuck in a sink hole for at least an hour, a metro spokeswoman said. The back tires of the C14 bus got caught in the hole at about 11:30 a.m. at Auth Rd. and Mercedes Blvd. A slew of rain related accidents were reported throughout the region.
At 1:45 pm yesterday, the first road closure was announced: a mile-long stretch of Beach Drive in Rock Creek Stream Valley Park between Connecticut Avenue and Old Spring Road in Chevy Chase. The road is operated by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
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The rain was expected to stop sometime between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., according to the National Weather Service The center of Ernesto was 25 miles southeast of Richmond at 5 p.m. yesterday and it was moving North to Northeast at 10 miles per hour. Winds were 35 miles per miles per hour.
In Virginia, Kaine declared a state of emergency and authorized up to 200 members of the National Guard to be ordered to state active duty. D.C. Mayor Anthony William also called for a state of emergency, but did so from the refuge of a Caribbean Island, according to a spokeswoman from his office.
Dominion Power was working at full staff and had called in extra contractors from nearby areas. Pepco employees were told to keep their cell phones and pagers nearby and to come to work with a bag packed so they could go where the storm hit hardest, spokesman Robert Dobkins said.
By 5.p.m. Dominion Power was working to restore electricity to 307,000 customers throughout Virginia. Baltimore Gas and Electric reported 34,424 outages and Pepco estimated 28,696.
Emergency officials everywhere issued warnings, especially for holiday travelers.
"A tropical depression doesn't mean that you can't drive and doesn't mean that you can't be outside," Marc LaFountaine of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said. "But a tropical depression is a reason to not do unnecessary driving. When people look at their travel plans, they should ask, 'Do I really need to be out on the road or do I really need to be out on the road right now?'"
For the most part, the toll of yesterday's storm depended on where one was standing -- in a flooded yard, or under the shelter of an awning, sipping an iced tea.
Alex Cochrane, a 28-year-old Manassas resident, sat slouched in a chair under the eaves of a Starbucks on Sudley Road, with the tea in front of him on the table. He was in no rush to drink it. "It's my last weekend of vacation time," he said, staring at the rain. "I was planning to go swimming."
Instead, he settled into his new plan.
"Chilling at Starbucks," Cochrane said.
Few of Friday's other latte-seekers expressed any worries about their homes flooding. Katie Jacoby, 30, of Manassas, said she thought it was "nice out," and that she welcomed the storms after a hot, dry August.
"My plants are happy," she said, "and if my plants are happy, I'm happy."
As for those already at the their weekend destination, there was nothing to do but cope.
In Ocean City, a few plastic-wrapped visitors bent into the wind to see what a tropical storm felt like. A couple in a jeep watched through the windshield shaking their heads and snapping pictures of the wild sea. Cars created breakers of a different sort along the coastal highway as they whacked large pools of standing water and some played dodge ball with garbage cans and milk crates that skittered across the road.
At a Sunsations store, Stephanie Resser and her brother were killing time shopping. They were leaving early, chased away from an annual family gathering by the weather and car troubles. "It sucks, but I'm still going to have to pay for a tanning bed when I get home," said Resser, who lives in Shiremans Town, Pa.
The malls, roads and hotels all seemed eerily vacant. But business thrived at the movie theatre, where manager Andrew Seyler called it the "busiest day for the past couple weeks."
The Liquor Mart also faired well.
"For this period of the day it's pretty steady," Cristina Camaras, 26, a Romanian student who came to Ocean City to work for the summer.
"The bars will be packed today -- stay in, watch TV and drink all day," a patron interjected before heading out the door with a bottle of Appletini mix and a bottle of Jagermesiter.
Staff writers Fredrick Kunkle, Nick Miroff, Robert Samuels, Paul Schwarzman and William Wan contributed to this report.