Bloomingdale Floods Again

After the Bloomingdale neighborhood in Northwest D.C. flooded again Sunday night, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie has requested a relief fund for victims, the AP reports. It's the fourth flood since July -- and it was so bad one man had to be rescued after rising water trapped him in his car on Rhode Island Avenue.

Rhode Island Avenue and surrounding streets were shut down. Basements flooded, and cars became submerged and had to be towed.

At a recently built condominium building in the 900 block of Florida Avenue NW, bathroom drains backed up from the pressure of the storm water, and ground floor carpets quickly became soaked with dirty brown water, but thankfully, no raw sewage, this time.

“What’s happened is that a very large amount of rainfall has fallen in a short period of time, and we do not think it’s a matter of clogged drains or clogged pipes,” DC Water General Manager George Hawkins said. “It’s just the sheer quantity of flow that’s going in to them is more than the pipes can handle, and that’s what’s caused the flooding.”

Mayor Vincent Gray established a task force to find a solution for the flooding in the neighborhood.

“I have to believe that we’re going to get to a solution and to some short-term remedies for these neighbors,” said Teri Janine Quinn, of the Bloomingdale Civic Association, who sits on that task force.“

DC Water is trying to come up with a solution, but it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take more than a decade to complete. In the meantime, a stopgap effort is being offered.

"A back-flow preventer can stop that from flowing in in its place," Hawkins said. "For the first time, DC Water has a program to rebate up to 90 percent or $3,000 of the cost of a back-flow preventer. We just sent out the materials to the people in this neighborhood so that they can know how to apply for the rebate."

Flooding also was reported in the Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods, the Associated Press reported.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor area and Middleburg in Loudoun County, Va., saw the most rainfall over a 24-hour period from Sunday morning to Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service. It said 1.3 inches of rainfall was recorded in Baltimore and 1.65 inches was recorded in Middleburg.

The stormy weather has been attributed to the remnants of Isaac, which could continue to affect the Mid-Atlantic region into Wednesday. Flooding at the Shaw-Howard University Metro Station caused the closure of three stations on the Green and Yellow lines Sunday night.

More scattered thunderstorms are expected today and tomorrow.