Rockets' Red Glare Lightens Stormy Day

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 5, 2007

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.

Earlier, when the focus was on the threat of terrorism, the D.C. police had hundreds of officers augmenting U.S. Park Police patrols. Emergency workers looked for automobiles near the Mall rigged with explosives like those found in London last week.

The Park Police and the D.C. Emergency Management Agency had command centers monitoring activity along the route of the midday parade and at the Mall, but there were no arrests by early evening.

A long trailer near the U.S. Capitol was painted with the motto "Never Forget 9/11." Inside the vehicle, city and federal homeland security officials checked computer screens, police radio reports and video feeds to ensure that nothing marred the D.C. celebration.

"Everyone is up and monitoring," said Christopher T. Geldart, director of the National Capital Region for the Department of Homeland Security.

Inside the 38-foot-long operations center, emergency workers watched live video from downtown streets and peered at law enforcement alerts popping up on the computer: six anarchists at the World War II Memorial, 25 Code Pink activists at the National Archives, about 10 white supremacists sporting swastika armbands near the Washington Monument.

The District's Department of Transportation said it planned to test its emergency traffic signal-timing system after the fireworks, particularly along the Seventh Street-Georgia Avenue route to the Beltway.

A U.S. Park Police spokesman predicted a record crowd as the weather remained hot and moist in midafternoon and skies stayed clear. One official estimated that about 400,000 had come out for the celebration. As of 11 last night, Metro was reporting that more than 503,751 people had been on the rail system.

Authorities monitored the crowds from a police helicopter throughout the day. Officers were urged to look for vehicles with suspicious characteristics, such as protruding wires or an unusual odor.

"We actually have people staged at various locations along the parade route and the Mall," said Darrell L. Darnell, head of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. "A lot of the things we get are just people dehydrated."

On Alert for Threats

But officials were on the lookout for worse.

About midday, eight volunteer emergency workers in bright green vests set out from the mobile operations center to patrol the area. They carried a list of potential indicators of a car bomb: vehicles with sagging trunks, cargo covered by a blanket, the strong odor of gasoline.

"If you see something out of the way with a vehicle, give us a call," urged Kerry Payne, deputy operations chief at the Emergency Management Agency.

Payne acknowledged that D.C. authorities were being especially watchful after incidents last week in London and Glasgow that involved vehicles rigged with gas canisters.

"Anybody could take a vehicle and load it up," he said. "That's the hardest thing to stop."

No suspicious cars were reported, he said. Several vehicles were towed from Independence and Pennsylvania avenues, where parking restrictions had been tightened.

District police closed the 14th Street and Roosevelt bridges to traffic at 9:05 p.m. Sgt. Joe Gentile, a police spokesman, said the closures were to prevent hazards caused by drivers stopping to watch the fireworks and also "as a tactical security measure" in light of last week's terrorist attacks in Britain.

Lauren Kohari, 23, an administrative coordinator for the American Psychological Association, sat on a blanket near the Washington Monument with her roommate, Suzanne Ostrofsky, 22. She said there was no point worrying. "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen," Kohari said. "I'm not going to not go to the fireworks in D.C. because there might be a terrorist attack."

Watching the parade on Constitution Avenue in the afternoon sun were three Scottish tourists: Stewart and Audrey Connor and their 15-year-old son, James. The Connors flew from England to the United States the day before a flaming car rigged by terrorists crashed into a terminal entrance at the Glasgow airport.

It is "not worth getting nervous about that stuff, really," Stewart, 42, said. His wife, 40, said: "You could get killed crossing the road, couldn't you? All of this will never stop me from traveling."

As the afternoon passed quietly, Payne alerted the police and other colleagues of a severe storm watch for the evening.

Staying Dry -- and Patient

Donna Cox, 40, of Owings and about 25 family members and friends sought shelter in the National Air and Space Museum.

"It was great," Cox said. "We just took a seat in there and had fun."

Because Cox and her group have come for the fireworks for nearly 25 years, they were prepared for almost anything. They left their temporary campsite under tarp while they listened to the Air Force band inside the museum.

As usual since Sept. 11, 2001, people seeking spots for the evening concert and fireworks had to go through checkpoints and present coolers and knapsacks for inspection. Near the Washington Monument in the afternoon, some played sports while the U.S. Navy Band warmed up on a stage.

Eve Persian, a native of France who lives in Woodley Park, said she has been coming to see the fireworks for more than 40 years.

"It's nice to take part in what's typically American," the 68-year-old retired secretary said. "It brings you back to what is important in life. . . . Country, for one, a certain amount of happiness and peace."