Residents of Flood-Prone N.Va. Areas Grow Weary

Alan Ruof used to love the rain: the fresh smell, the soothing sound of its patter as it fell. But now that his house has flooded or threatened to so many times and evacuation has become a routine drill, a rain such as that brought by Tropical Storm Hanna yesterday fills him with dread.

"It's traumatizing," Ruof said after packing up his house in the flood-prone Huntington neighborhood of Fairfax County and decamping to a friend's Saturday afternoon. "Now, whenever I hear rain, it's a terrific source of anxiety."

Ruof was among the Huntington residents who were asked to evacuate by Fairfax emergency officials or who said they decided to leave before they got the knock on the door ordering them to go.

Ruof lives outside the flood zone, but he said that he wanted to take no chances. Not after a tropical depression in June 2006 sent a flash flood into his basement and ruined not only his heating and cooling systems and every appliance but also 20 years of photographs and mementos.

It took him months to recover. Now, fear of flooding has become old hat. He switched from a desktop computer to a laptop, the easier to cart it away when evacuated. He knows exactly what to pack -- change of clothes, shaving kit, umbrella -- and what to leave. And all the valuables have been moved from the basement to the attic.

"You learn," he said.

At Huntington Community Center, a temporary evacuation shelter, Michael Murphy stood in the rain yesterday afternoon. "I'm more than a little nervous," he said. His house across the street was completely destroyed in 2006. "Which explains this." He held up a can of Budweiser.

Inside, Harry Sheppler sighed, watching the weather report on a giant TV. Earlier in the day, he had brought a futon out of his basement, thinking how heavy it would be to lug it up the stairs if it got soaked. He put his dogs on the Animal Control van parked up the street, parked his car on higher ground and put his cat on the second floor of his house. But he didn't take any valuables. "When you've gone through this once, it's just stuff," he said.

Jim Cumbo, 46, stood under a too-small umbrella on a corner near his house on Arlington Terrace, watching the brown water of Cameron Run turn the street into a slow-moving river. Although officials had evacuated him from his home, he wanted to stay nearby, as if his presence could somehow avert a flood like the one that destroyed his house in 2006.

"If I was standing here on this corner in 2006, I'd have been swimming," he said. He shook his head, disgusted. Everyone -- the county, the state, the federal government -- knows that the area is flood-prone, he said. But they have yet to do anything. "This is one day of rain after a dry period, and look at what you get. Excuse me if I'm bitter."

One block away, on higher ground, Fairfax County's pontoon rescue boats sat atop trailers, at the ready.

Out in the street, Cumbo's neighbor Reggie McBee stood in his Crocs in ankle-deep water and used an orange plastic snow shovel to scoop flooding water into the one storm drain that hadn't been overrun. "I don't know what I'm doing," he said. "But it's doing something." To McBee, yesterday had the feel of déjà vu. "It's getting old."

Already, two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studies have found the culprit behind the flooding: 40 years of progress and development. Cameron Run, a stream that used to meander, was straightened and narrowed when the Beltway was built in the 1960s. As more land was paved upstream, it could no longer absorb excess water, and more water began flowing faster through Cameron Run. That flow becomes a flood in heavy rain, because silt has made Cameron Run, which has never been dredged, as much as five feet shallower than it once was.

Officials said about 10 inches of rain from Hanna fell at Lake Barcroft, which flows into Cameron Run.

"It's the height of irresponsibility," said Scott Rogers, out walking his dog in his yellow rain gear. "It's like building a road and never repairing it for 40 years. And because the solution costs a lot of money, they'd rather 150 to 200 houses flood every two years."

The Corps is slated to release a proposed flood protection levee design in February.