Flooding closed Rock Creek Parkway and Beach Drive Wednesday morning after a torrential downpour overflowed the creek and several cars had to be rescued. After the roads reopened, cars were still pulling off at the park’s rest stops and campsites, but not because they were in distress.
“It looks magnificent, and I wanted to catch it on video,” said Tom Evans, 61, a retiree from Silver Spring, as he held up his phone to record the roaring river of water. He had been on his way to buy wine in Woodley Park for his sister and brother-in-law, who he said would need the alcohol after the weather they had been experiencing. Although they hadn’t accompanied Evans, the video would show his relatives “how beautiful” the area was.
Yards away, a woman whipped out her BlackBerry to take a photo of her son in front of the choppy water, where uneven stones had created a mini-waterfall. They declared it “super cool” when a large tree limb became caught in the fall. Two teenage boys photographed each other, while others pulled off for smoke breaks and to stare into the river.
James Armbruster and his daughter, Sylvia Jacobson, parked at a rest stop further south on Beach Drive where the flooding creek had almost reached the road. “This is scary, sure, but it’s beautiful and exciting in a weird way,” said Armbruster, 57, a lawyer who has lived in Bethesda for 18 years and the Washington area for 27. “The riverbank has completely disappeared — I’ve never seen a flood up close before.”
The toes of his brown loafers were soaked almost immediately after he stepped into the grass from the parking area. “Clearly they didn’t put these picnic tables in the middle of the river,” said Armbruster, noting that even the table farthest from the bank was flooded to its benches.
Like Evans, Armbruster and Jacobson, 15, found the flooded site “striking” and “magnificent.”
“This kind of looks like Great Falls,” Jacobson said, looking out at the rapids. A trip to Great Falls would be a perfect activity for the day’s weather, they joked, and headed back to the car.
