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The rain is falling, D.C. is under a flood warning until 3 p.m., and a flash-flood watch is in effect until tomorrow at 6 a.m. While the city hasn’t seen any extreme flooding today, according to DC Water spokesman John Lisle, the agency has a crew on the streets monitoring two adjacent neighborhoods that typically experience the worst flooding during storms: Bloomingdale and Ledroit Park. The Washington Post‘s Capital Weather Gang reports that there has already been one to two inches of rain from this storm system, and we can expect at least another 1 to 2 inches through tonight.
Employees of DC Water are ensuring that storm drains in Bloomingdale and Ledroit Park don’t clog, says Lisle. They’re also giving sandbags to residents who wanted them at the intersection of 1 Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW. “We are not getting any reports of serious flooding,” says Lisle. “Although we have seen a lot of rain, it hasn’t been that real intense burst in a short amount of time.”
D.C. Water has been working to implement flood-mitigating measures in Bloomingdale, including creating bioretention sites, which use landscaping features to provide onsite treatment of storm-water runoff, and the repurposing of a cell at the McMillan Sand Filtration Site to store three million gallons of storm water during heavy rains.
New bioretention was added at 15 locations on Irving St NW above the #BloomingdaleDC neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/gQCIr0aL6e
— DC Water (@dcwater) April 30, 2014
The McMillan tank can hold approximately 3M gallons during heavy rains. #BloomingdaleDC pic.twitter.com/UnypM9IlyE
— DC Water (@dcwater) April 30, 2014
Still, the streets are wet today, and while the flooding isn’t considered by DC Water to be extreme, in some places it’s definitely disruptive. Here are some of the photos, videos, and comments being shared on Twitter from around the region:
Park Police Reporting: West Beach Dr. NW blocked off from Beach drive to Maryland Line due to flooding . Part of Crestwood Neighborhood.
— DDOT DC (@DDOTDC) April 30, 2014
@perrystein Rain April 30, 2014 This was during the moderate rain before the deluge http://t.co/PpIWGgUEpL
— Bloomingdame (@bloomingdame) April 30, 2014
RT @trulldc Flooding at Old Town Alexandria near the Starbucks pic.twitter.com/0HPGVQX5sQ
— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) April 30, 2014
Shaw is under water
— Sarah N. Emerson (@SarahNEmerson) April 30, 2014
If you have any photos of flooding, or lack thereof in your neighborhood, send ’em my way at citydesk@washingtoncitypaper.com
Photo by Mike Madden
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