flooding

Video Shows Man, Woman Swept Away in Floodwaters Outside Virginia Bar

“Are they gonna make it?” an onlooker can be heard saying as a man giving a woman a piggyback ride head into fast-moving water outside Hashtag Lounge in Alexandria

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After overnight storms dumped inches of rain in Northern Virginia, cellphone video captured a man and woman being swept away while trying to cross a flooded street outside a bar in Alexandria.

The video going viral was shot outside Hashtag Lounge in the 600 block of S. Pickett Street, near the body of water Backlick Run.

In the video, the man walks into the flooded street while giving a piggyback ride to a woman wearing a green party dress, the 45-second video shows.

Fast-moving water swirls past his knees. 

“Are they gonna make it?” one onlooker can be heard saying. 

The man loses his footing, falls and drops the woman, to shrieks from the crowd. Almost immediately, they’re both swept along by the water.

The man struggles to grab the woman. At one point, she gets her footing and then falls again. 

Finally, another man is able to carry the woman to the sidewalk as the first man walks beside him. 

The woman who shot the video said floodwaters trapped patrons of the bar and lounge on one side of the street for almost an hour and finally receded.

The Alexandria Fire Department said no one was hurt, and they helped people get to higher ground.

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