More Flooding in Bloomingdale – Shaw/Howard Metro Station Flooded, Metro Closed Between Mt Vernon Sq. & Georgia Ave/Petworth Sunday Night

by Prince Of Petworth September 2, 2012 at 11:14 pm 14 Comments

1st and Rhode Island Ave, NW Sunday night courtesy of @BoundaryStoneDC

Unfortunately more flooding in Bloomingdale Sunday night.

@IAFF36 tweeted around 7pm:

“Units responding to Rhode Island Ave NE at 1st and 2nd streets. Several cars under water with people trapped in or on vehicles.”

Photo around 7:23pm via @AnaSantosPhoto

The Shaw metro stop on the green line also flooded causing a closure between Mt. Vernon Square and Georgia Ave./Petworth.

@WMATA tweeted around 9:30pm Sunday evening:

“Green/Yellow rail service btwn Mt Vernon Sq & Georgia Ave to remain suspended through system closing.”

On Aug. 22nd Mayor Gray established a flood prevention task force to address flooding in Bloomingdale and Ledroit Park.

Anonymous

Too much over building in DC – More concrete more flooding….
- Anonymous
  
  It doesn’t have anything to do with that. If anything we have less concrete in this area than we did ten years ago.
  - Anonymous
    
    Runoff is certainly a part of the problem & Bloomingdale’s infrastructure can not handle the new uses of property. It’d be interesting to see a technical opinion of DC Water on what amount of residents the current sewer system is designed for. As we all know, the mayor holds hands with developers & it’s interesting that Christophe Tulou – director of DC Department of the Environment, supporter of stricter regulations on storm water managment & low-impact development as a substitute for expensive tunneling to prevent sewage from draining into the Potomac & Anacostia rivers – was fired last Friday. Needless to say, developers were not fond of Tulou. The city seems to look the other way if someone is generating higher property taxes. The Council also passed the Vision McMillan team’s 48 million dollar budget last Spring to urbanize McMillan Park in Bloomingdale without requiring the private developers to address the loss of water absorption & runoff consequences of demolishing the park’s 25 acre green roof – or the impact of adding hundreds of more toilets/kitchens/laundry (water usage) without upgrading the infastructure first.
    - Anonymous
      
      what new uses of property are you talking about? there is a school turned into a condo. that’s much less of a burden on the sewer. another school was demolished and turned into a park. again less burden. houses that were boarding houses have been changed into single family houses, with far fewer children that was the average 20 years ago. we have two new bars. thats the only serious change. otherwise our population has gone down.
    - Anonymous
      
      Wait, I thought Vince was the anti-development boogey monster that would stall all development in DC and make sure white folks couldn’t move in??? Now he’s some pro development shill??? Can you people stick with one conspiracy.
      - Holliday Williams
        
        There weren’t as many people living in Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park when the federal government built the sewers more than 100 years ago (main sewer trunk line was built in the 1880’s). Cellars have became basement apartments, displacing groundwater and connecting more people to the system. The current Clean Rivers Project’s plan to resolve the problem is very expensive and won’t be completed until 2025. Until then, Bloomingdale will have to depend on short-term fixes and replacing McMillan park with 17-20 acres of high-density development and impermeable surface will exacerbate the flooding that residents south of the site experience after heavy rainfall. The proposed 1200 housing units and 2 million sq. ft. of commercial building will add to the already overburdened sewage system, all having an eventual adverse impact on the Anacostia River. Also, there’s a large creek (Tiber?) which runs under the southeast corner of the McMillan site that will continue to contribute to a high water-table and cause subsidence and continuous structural problems for future property owners. McMillan currently serves as one of the largest green roofs on the planet, a popular form of sustainable stormwater managment, and used to be a part of the city’s “Necklace of Emeralds”. We should be planting more, not paving (imagine how big the trees would be in 13 years). DC is already a condo black hole (11,000 new apartments expected to be completed in the area in the next 12 months) and we should concentrate on rebuilding the long-blighted commercial corridors that already exist and limit the number of new devolopments in Bloomingdale until the sewer issue is under control. DC needs more homes and green space to support & enrich our families anyways (what happens in 10 years when DC’s raft of newcomers grow out of one-bedroom apts and their lives evolve past the urban-playground stage and they are less interested in bars than parks for their kids?).
petworthian

I don’t think it’s a result of lost green space, as the city is really rebuilding to past levels. Rather, the sewers are probably choked with trash along with dirt and debris from the recent construction and are in desperate need of some overdue maintenance to clear them out.
Anonymous

Gonna be even worse when it rains today.
John B.

This was from the remnants of Isaac, and a bit part of the problem was simply too much rain over too short a period. This rain was just crazy and the storm stalled over the city for 2 hours. I measured 4″ of rain in Mt. Pleasant between 7 pm & 9 pm. Haven’t seen rain like that in about 10 years.
thebear

I’ve said before, the exact same thing happened over in east Dupont about 10 years ago. There’s undoubtedly crud down there that has reached critical mass to inhibit drainage. In Dupont, they rebuilt the sewer lines and it hasn’t been a problem since. If they bothered figuring out where the blockage is they could at least clear it as an interim measure.
- Anonymous
  
  All you have to do is look at all the litter on the streets, this is what is clogging the storm drains, inside and right at the street level. Yes, they clean the streets during several warm months but that cant keep up with all the litter that DC’s “rightful residents” throw out into the streets.
Anon

It kind of looks like the start of a haunted river ride…
Anonymous

Unfortunately there is also lots of sloppy road construction being done in the city. For example, at the corner of 18th and Q NW, the drainage there had been fine for years. After the recent renovations of 18th St., however, there is now massive amounts of water collecting that intersection, impeding pedestrians walking and taking hours, if not up to a full day, to clear after the rain stops.
Ridethewave

Wait till they pave over McMillan and all that water comes pouring down.

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