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Deluge Washes Away Area's Drought
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That news was cold, damp comfort across the region yesterday. The storm damaged buildings and even threatened lives on a path from Northern Virginia to the Delaware coast.
One of the most dramatic scenes in the Washington area was in Camp Springs, where a sinkhole 10 feet deep opened up in a residential neighborhood. Resident Daniel Walsh was awakened about 6:30 yesterday morning by firefighters banging on his door.
He had no idea what was going on until they directed him to his back yard -- or what was left of it.
"I was stunned," Walsh said. "I just kept looking at the firefighters and this hole."
The sinkhole -- about 20 feet wide, 10 feet deep and in some spots more than half the length of a football field -- wiped out Walsh's and two of his neighbors' back yards. The entire porch of his next door neighbor's house fell into the hole, swallowing up the grill, air conditioner and awning.
At another neighbor's house, a sundeck and carport were supported only by exposed beams, which looked like broken toothpicks, and were slowly shifting into the hole.
County officials said they thought rain was the cause of the sinkhole but were not sure why it formed there. They told Walsh that he can remain in his house, but he said he is a little nervous about the hole.
In Chesapeake Beach in Calvert County, a strong gust of wind drove a partially constructed house into a neighboring residence about 10:30 p.m. Sunday, collapsing both structures and leaving two people briefly trapped inside.
"I heard what I thought was lightning. Then I looked out the window and I didn't see the house anymore," said Diana Fischer, who lives next door. She was worried the debris might slide into her house.
"I don't even know if my house is going to be here when I get back," she said.
In the Atlantic Ocean, one crew member was killed and another injured when the research vessel Russell W. Peterson foundered 14 miles off Rehoboth Beach, Del.
The Coast Guard had rescued both crew members from the boat, which had been studying migratory bird routes for a company seeking to build a windmill farm. One of the two was pronounced dead at a hospital in Salisbury, Md., the Associated Press said. His name was not released.
