Rockets' Red Glare Lightens Stormy Day

Hundreds of thousands of Fourth of July celebrators poured into Washington yesterday, talking nervously about terrorist threats and tornado warnings, then running for cover late in the afternoon when a violent thunderstorm swept through the area. But the foul weather soon passed, and the annual fireworks display went off as scheduled.

Police used bullhorns to evacuate the Mall at almost the same time they warned visitors to take shelter last year when a storm drenched the July 4 crowd and sent trash cans rattling into the streets. As happened last year, people tried to stay dry inside the Smithsonian museums and other nearby structures, but they weren't happy about it.

"It's big-time disappointing," said Doug Smith, 52, of Germantown, outside a garage near the Capitol grounds. "I'd rather weather a hurricane than sit here for four hours."

At 6:15 p.m., with rain coming down hard and people talking about seeing golf-ball-size hailstones, the Lincoln Memorial was crowded. Some sat on folding chairs or on coolers. Some stood between the columns. Others sat on the steps, trying to keep dry under ponchos and umbrellas.

Bill Line, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said 21 buildings were open to the public during the rainstorm. D.C. officials said 10 shelters were available last year.

By 9:10 p.m., however, the frustration some experienced during the day seemed to melt as crowds watched the fireworks on a breezy summer evening.

"Seeing the fireworks behind the monument, there's nothing like it," said Allen Girnus, 42, of Winchester, Va., from the Capitol lawn. "Between the music and guns, it's just breathtaking. It gives you goose bumps, even though it's the second time" he has watched the show on the Mall.

Theresa Farrell caught the display near the Washington Monument with her husband and 13-year-old granddaughter, Brittany Faubert. The Farrells traveled to Washington for the week from Putnam, Conn.

"I think it's outstanding," Farrell, 65, said. "It's fantastic that something like this can bring so many people together from different countries."

There were reports late yesterday of two incidents in which organized fireworks displays injured people. An employee of Pyro Shows Inc., the company that orchestrated the Mall fireworks, was severely injured when a shell exploded about 15 minutes after the show ended. The man, whom police did not identify, was transported to a hospital in a U.S. Park Police helicopter. A second man was also injured, Line said, but was treated at the scene and moved in an ambulance.

Line said the Tennessee-based company often tests shells the afternoon before a show, and the shell that injured the two men was a leftover that had not been tested.

In Vienna, seven people were injured when a mortar went into the crowd, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue said. An adult was taken by helicopter to the Washington Hospital Center burn unit. Five children and one adult were taken by ambulance to Inova Fairfax Hospital.