Ernesto Leaves Area Damaged but Grateful

Remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto moved slowly northward yesterday after blasting the Washington region with wind and rain and knocking down power lines but causing less damage than some forecasters had feared.

The storm did hit hard in Ocean City on what is usually one of the resort community's busiest weekends of the year. The storm surge eroded the beach in many places, flooded coastal marshes and damaged the siding and awnings of numerous buildings and homes. Boards littered the beach, and the boxes that hold rental umbrellas and chairs were tossed around by waves and broken into pieces.

In Southern Maryland, at least three homes were destroyed in St. Mary's County after a tidal surge left boats on rocks and littered roads near the water with trees, ice machines and refrigerators. St. Mary's officials, concerned that some areas might still be without power today, distributed dry ice yesterday for affected residents. No deaths or injuries were reported there.

By later today, utility officials said, they hoped to have power restored throughout the Washington area. About 74,000 customers remained without power in Maryland late yesterday, the majority of them east and south of Washington, including in Anne Arundel, Prince George's, St. Mary's and Calvert counties. In Northern Virginia, the 94,000 customers who lost power during the storm had dwindled to 2,500, Dominion Virginia Power said. About 4,000 people in the District remained in the dark.

Yet even as officials scrambled to turn on the lights and clean up the occasional fallen tree limb and other debris, they expressed relief that the storm that had struck Haiti, Cuba, Florida and the Carolinas before hitting the Washington region had spared the area a bigger blow. "This wasn't as bad a storm as we expected," said Mary-Beth Hutchinson, a Pepco spokeswoman.

And there is better news ahead for the remainder of the Labor Day holiday weekend. The forecast for today and tomorrow calls for partly cloudy skies and a high of 82 degrees, said John Gresiak, senior forecaster for AccuWeather.com, a private forecasting service. Today and tomorrow "are looking pretty good," he said yesterday.

Another weather system is expected to pass through the area Tuesday, causing showers and thunderstorms and possible flooding in low-lying areas. "Given the fact that we now have saturated ground, with this new storm, anything even moderately heavy could cause some localized flooding," said Gresiak, who predicted "perhaps an inch or so of rain" Tuesday.

St. Mary's recorded the area's highest rain total from Ernesto, with 6.92 inches. At Reagan National Airport, 2.63 inches of rain fell, and 3.17 inches were recorded at Dulles International Airport. Wind gusts peaked at 58 mph in Ocean City on Friday, Gresiak said.

He said the rain was beneficial because August was such a dry month, with only 1.03 inches of rain falling at National Airport compared with the normal 3.44 inches. The normal for September is 3.79 inches.

In Northern Virginia, the remaining areas without power yesterday were concentrated in Fairfax and Arlington counties and in Alexandria. Fairfax officials closed the emergency shelter yesterday morning that they had opened at Thomas A. Edison High School because only one person showed up. Periodic flooding of roads was reported, but homes remained safe, even in such areas as Huntington, Belle View and New Alexandria, which often flood during serious storms, county spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said.

Elsewhere in Virginia, at least four deaths were attributed to the storm. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) toured a Richmond neighborhood yesterday where about 250 homes had been evacuated.

Still, officials were thankful the toll wasn't higher. "We did dodge a bullet," Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich (R) told a Baltimore radio station.

Staff writer Carol Sottili in Ocean City contributed to this report.