While I don’t think this is as bad as what Pennsylvania Dopers are facing, we’ve had some scary stuff going on today. Raining 2-3 inches in an hour for several hours, after a week of nonstop precipitation. Lots of photos of submerged cars etc… available on the web.
My drive home was pretty scary. Fairfax County Parkway; first half wasn’t so bad, second half was. Between the rain, and driving into patches of standing water (on the FC Parkway) which threatened to wrench the wheel out of my hands - and I was only going 25!! - and idiots driving 50 mph and sending up such dense rooster-tails of water that I was literally blinded several times. It wasn’t the scariest driving of my life but I’d say it was in the top 3.
A lot of roads in the area are closed, including parts of the Springfield Interchange - which had only happened once in my memory, and that involved a truckload of gunpowder. If I’d left work an hour later, my own route home would have had two closures. As it was, I had to change part of it because of standing water on US 29, that must have been over a foot deep.
People are evacuating several areas. There aren’t any shelters set up for them as far as I know.
I have not reports of major property damage such as we’ve seen in photos of PA, at least not so far.
My commute home is along the Rock Creek Parkway. I enjoyed watching the creek at such a high level. A section of the road was closed, but fortunately that was right after where I turn off.
I’ve had enough rain for the time being, but I can’t complain too much about it.
I was supposed to have class at the College of Southern Maryland in LaPlata yesterday, and I learned they closed the school just before I got there. It’s about 25 miles from home, so I wasn’t happy. Fortunately, my ride in didn’t involve the sinkholes on 301, so I was good there.
Our house sits on a higher part of the neighborhood on the highest part of our lot, so everything drains away to the back of the yard. And a couple of weeks ago, my husband caulked our leaking solar tube, so apart from the many mushrooms growing in the lawn, the rain has mostly been an annoyance.
My daughter was detoured on her way to King George yesterday - high water on MD234, among other roads. She called me since she had no idea where she ended up (she’s inherited her dad’s sense of direction) and I was able to tell her where she was and where she needed to go. She’s off today - they closed KG county schools.
Bottom line, the worst I have to deal with is getting my idiot dog to go out to pee when it’s raining. Apparently she’s such a delicate flower, she’ll melt… :rolleyes:
I’m fine. My wife and I made a quick decision yesterday to not try to get to work, and have kept driving to an absolute minimum since. Despite being near the Chesapeake, our lot is at 90 feet above sea level, and has excellent drainage, so our house and yard are fine.
When we tried to go to work yesterday, we turned on the radio when we hit the first backup, and heard within seconds that this was just the first backup, that there was even worse shit ahead. So we turned around and went home, did some stuff we could do by telework, and kept an eye on developments, figuring we could get in later in the morning, or by lunchtime at worst. But when things kept on getting worse rather than improving, we teleworked for the entire day.
This morning, the main road (Md Route 4) between here and work is closed at the Patuxent crossing, and the alternate routes involve considerable detours and are jammed to the hilt, so we’re staying home again - my wife’s teleworking again, but I’ve run out of stuff I can do from here, so I’m taking annual leave instead. Which is fine with me, there’s always plenty I can do around the house.
Totally fine here in sunny LeDroit Park. This rain is getting me down though. It just. won’t. stop. Makes me want to scream to the heavens to give us just a little break.
Centreville Road was flooded and so was a part of walney. It took about an hour and 45 minutes to get home, on a trip that would have otherwise taken 15 minutes…
I live on a hilltop and my office building is also on high ground, so no immediate worries here. There is a dip on Goshen Rd that’s been flooded during heavy rains before, but I didn’t go home that way yesterday and may not today since it is a “trouble” area.
We’re still good - but a friend of mine just posted photos on Facebook, of a sinkhole that opened up on their street. It looks large enough to swallow an entire car.
There is this bright yellow thing in the sky that I vaguely remember from way back. Rumor has it that it will be gone soon and the rains will start again. I’ve started to collect two of every animal…
I have quite a crop of mushrooms in the front and back yards. Wish I knew if any are edible…
Big ball of fire in sky is shining here also. From the looks of weather radar, we may be spared showers for the immediate future. It’d be nice to walk across the yard and not hear it squish underfoot. Dare I dream??