According to my rain gauge, we got three inches of rain starting late Saturday, July 2nd and through the night into Sunday. I don’t have to tell you that this is a lot of rain for such a short period of time. And it usually means trees down and flooding along Rock Creek and its tributaries.
Still, a friend and I, walking together on Sunday morning, were surprised to find our path blocked by high water at an entrance to Western Ridge Trail north of Military Road.
And on many parts of the trail, the floodwaters lapped against its edge.
Rapids raced, slamming against large rocks, and spitting and frothing with a deafening roar.
At one spot, a pipe carrying water from one side of the trail to the other had been smashed.
A section of Beach Drive was covered with a slick layer of mud. I held my breath as cyclists rode through. They slowed down as they approached.
And where Broad Branch Road meets the Soapstone trail, floodwaters ripped through the temporary roadway built by DC Water’s sewer rehabilitation contractor. The receding water left large gravel and debris strewn across Broad Branch, making it difficult for all modes of transportation to pass through.
The good news – I did not see the usual plastic water bottles littering the landscape.
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Green Eyeshades says
Wow. If the construction trail was that badly damaged at Broad Branch, would the damage be greater or less along the length of the ravine from Broad Branch up to Audubon?
The construction noise I usually heard from the DC Water project in the ravine before the weekend Monsoon seems to have continued this week. But maybe I have been hearing the road repairs at Albemarle & 32nd and not the DC Water project in the bottom of the ravine.