Days of torrential rain ended with minor damage to the District, but on Wednesday Mayor Anthony Williams justified his state of emergency declaration, arguing it’s always best to take the most pessimistic view no matter how the situation looks in hindsight.
“We did it at a time when we were expecting a tropical storm,” the mayor said as he surveyed a small mudslide on Belmont Road Northwest near the Taft Bridge. “We were expecting higher winds. The winds turned out not to be very high. … But you’ve got to go with predictions, and predictions are notoriously relative.”
Williams said he must make such predictions “even though you may have mud on your face, not to use a bad pun, the next day or so.”
Williams arrived on Belmont in jeans, a T-shirt and a pair of work boots. Department of Transportation workers, including those with the Urban Forestry Administration, were working to shore up the embankment, which had slid into a 70-footravine following four days of record-setting rain. One tree was cut down immediately out of fear it would fall, upend a weak root system and further damage the roadway.
One side of the narrow road, which shifted an inch as a result of the mudslide, was closed to traffic. The District will have to work with the National Park Service, which owns the stables under the Taft Bridge, to stabilize the slope.
“Whatever you say about top management,” the mayor said, “our work crews have done an extraordinary job.”
Williams declared the emergency late Tuesday as the storms were coming to an end. He said he went with the recommendation of Barbara Childs-Pair, director of the Emergency Management Agency.
The emergency was lifted Wednesday.
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