2006 DC Flood
My basement is okay. Okay in the sense that I don't have to lift my ankle length skirts. There is water in there, but the dehumidifer is going and the sump pump is working so all is well. Once the rain stops the basement will be dryish in a day.I do remember the August 2001 flood that destroyed several of my neighbors' basments. The water runoff joined the sewage in the ancient pipes and overflowed. Their toilets and drains in the basements backed up and cause a lot of damage as many of them had apartments and full fledged living quarters down there.
Of course, in 2001 I don't remember so much other stuff around town flooding. The National Archives downtown is closed, OPM has an unscheduled leave for today because so much has been disturbed downtown. I don't remember Metro having to close stations in 2001. All this is new and worrying.
As long as the electricity holds up I'll be fine.
Labels: weather
posted by Mari @ 26.6.06
3 Comments:
Can't we somehow blame the flooding on gentrifiers moving into the neighborhood? We never had no problems like flooding back in the day before those people moved in. Slummer
In 2001 my neighbors suffered severe damage and on my block many of the vicitms were working class and some Howard students. At the time, we were told it was one of those 100 year floods. And off the top of my head (as I haven't looked at the data for a while) 100 years ago the neighborhood was as economically and racially diverse as it is today, this rainy day.
It may not be the case for Truxton Circle, but ONE of the reasons for more flooding aside from stormdrains clogged with trash may be the decline in tree cover and the increase of non-permeable surfaces (concrete). If the rain can't go down to the water table directly through the soil, it will move horizontally somewhere. Trees help by leading the water down through its trunk anf into the ground they also help by holding rain water and releasing it slowly (notice how it's still raining under the trees even after it's stopped raining?) I only know this thanks to a Casey Trees (Caseytrees.org) volunteer training.
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