Flooding cripples Washington: closes government offices, tourist sights

[DeepModem Mom]

Reuters: Flooding cripples Washington
Mon Jun 26, 2006
By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Floods that ravaged the U.S. capital kept government tax collectors and federal agents away from work on Monday and closed the home of the Declaration of Independence.

With as much as 7 inches of rain having fallen since Sunday, flooded basements or electrical problems forced the closure of the Internal Revenue Service and Commerce Department headquarters, most of the U.S. Justice Department and the National Archives.

A century-old elm tree toppled at the White House and cars floated at flooded intersections on Constitution Avenue, which runs past tourist attractions such as the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

The federal government told its 280,000 area workers they could take leave time if they were unable to get to work.

Amtrak canceled seven early passenger trains between Washington and New York, and commuter rail service was disrupted. Mud washed onto the Capital Beltway highway, closing lanes. Many commuters took to the streets to walk....

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-06-26T165712Z_01_N26387997_RTRUKOC_0_US-WEATHER-MIDATLANTIC.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

[uppityperson]

1. wonder if FEMA will help

[smitty]

2. Maybe mayor Ray Nagin will send help.

Maybe not.

[MADem]

3. Shit, no BROWNIE to do a heckuva job!!!

Wonder how Porgie is enjoying his DC summer? Maybe he needs to check Al's movie!

[Theres-a]

14. Ouch

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. much freaky weather lately - bizarre amounts of rainfall

These "super" rain cell incidents have escalated incredibly in the last couple of years in my opinion on the East Coast. Last year Mt. Laurel New Jersey got something like 12 inches of rain in five hours. Last week I personally emptied what I considered to be 5-7 inches of rain from a single day's storm from the bottom of a trash barrel.It is also coming down like a monsoon - not just heavy, but torrential.

Piece of advice - buy flood insurance and it does not matter what the flooding history of your area is or how far away from the coast you are.

I guess when we are all sitting on top of our cars on the highway the stupid, asinine Rush Limbaughs and George Bushes of the world might realize that hey, there might be something to this global warming stuff.

Make yourself sick and google and read the current articles about the Greenland Ice shelf.

[movonne]

5. Is God punishing Washington DC???

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. No votes on the Senate floor today, they can't get into DC to vote

heard on CSPAN

[bananas]

7. Let's pray for more rain!

Maybe we could hire a cloud-seeding company to cover DC every day for the next two years?

[DemReadingDU]

8. Global Warming is sending a message!

[happydreams]

12. I tell ya

I got a bad feeling about all of this weird weather. :scared:

[Rex]

9. Cars will float, trees will fall, rivers will flow where once streets were

The global ecosystem is pissed and has decided to take it out on the main perpetrators.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

10. It couldn't happen to a nicer place. Well maybe Crawford. lol

[hatrack]

11. How do you like your voluntary climate plan now, assholes?

Disclaimer: I am referring here to the buffoons and poseurs who act like our government, not to the ordinary people like you and me in DC who're just trying to get to work.

End of disclaimer.

[bobbieinok]

13. has DC had this kind of flooding before?????

[MiniMe]

16. Not in my memory, and I've lived here since 1966

Not even during Agnes.

[soothsayer]

17. Agnes was amazing! We were kids and could boat in our

neighbors' yards, where our darling little local creek rose wayyyyyy above its banks. Heck, we snorkled in it!

On edit: also cool was the way it totally changed the place where we'd fish down at the Potomac, at the end of said creek. It even moved that big ol' metal boiler or whatever is partially submerged down there.

[soothsayer]

18. Potomac ain't cresting above flood stage, so really this is no big

deal except that the places that flooded weren't the usual suspects. But we're built on a swamp, so yeah, it's not that hard to get some flooding in DC. This is a weird one, tho. And they'll STILL say we have a drought!

[Fovea]

15. Is FEMA on the job yet?

Are they rounding up the poor for the halliburton camps yet?