Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley declared a state of emergency Thursday during a storm that drenched the Washington region, putting on standby the National Guard and state emergency personnel should local services become swamped. Across Washington and its suburbs, roads flooded, back yards turned marshy, water seeped into basements, and anyone who stepped outside returned like a coach who’s just won the Super Bowl — but without the accompanying glory. With poor visibility and slick road conditions, District officials said that vehicles struck “more than half a dozen” pedestrians, and roads ran like streams as water overwhelmed gutters.
“Flooding is a serious possibility — not just today, but maybe tomorrow and beyond,” said Mark Brady, spokesman for Prince George’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services. Grounds already saturated after Sunday’s storm had little tolerance for additional rains, forcing the water elsewhere.
In the District, the Department of Transportation closed Canal Road between Reservoir Road and Foxhall Road after a mudslide left debris along the Northwest thoroughfare Thursday morning.
The construction zone at the intersection of Virginia Route 236 and the Capital Beltway was narrowed to one lane because of excessive water, with the possibility of continued delays on Friday.
“In the morning, people need to drive with caution, aware that waters may not have receded and that roads could get worse,” said Fairfax police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.
In Laurel, city officials closed the MARC train station for Friday because of expected flooding of the Patuxent River.
The heaviest rains — and possible tornadoes in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs — were expected late Thursday night. But Mother Nature is expected to soften a bit by Friday and for the weekend, forecasters said.
In the atmosphere, “there’s been a battleground zone between the cold air from the winter weather and the warmer air from the spring weather, and that’s where we can get some pretty strong storm systems,” said Jared Klein, a forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “But it should be drier after this.”
As of Thursday evening, emergency personnel reported no major disasters. Pepco and Dominion reported some power outages, but nothing on the scale of the Jan. 26 snowstorm. Montgomery County again led outages with more than 1,200 Thursday evening.
