What Wednesday’s winter squall left behind

by Marlene Berlin

Lightning, thunder, pouring rain. It’s not your typical February weather. According to the Capital Weather Gang, Wednesday evening’s storm was a rare winter squall that dropped an inch of water per hour and brought wind gusts of 60-70 miles per hour.

That evening, as I sat chatting with neighbor Mary Beth Ray in her living room, the lights flickered and then went out. Walking home just half a block to 30th, I past a downed limb which had taken a wire with it. Sure enough that was the cause of the power outage for her block.

This branch took down a power line on the 4500 block of 29th Street NW.

The alley between 29th and 30th had become a stream. I felt lucky to be wearing my waterproof hiking shoes.

I was not as smart the next day, when I went out for my walk. I wanted to see how the Soapstone Trail and Melvin Hazen Park fared in the storm. I did wonder if the water would be too high make it through the stream crossings. Soapstone, at least the portion from the end of Audubon to Broad Branch, was a bit muddier than usual but fine. I saw clear signs that a lot of water had been through the area and had reshaped it. This always happens during a large rain event.

I found the Broad Branch culvert blocked by many tree trunks and large limbs.

The culvert at Soapstone Creek and Broad Branch Road.

It looked like the creek had flooded the roadway here. I wondered whether the flood warning lights at the culvert had been working to warn drivers to stay off the roadway. It is still unclear how effective they are.

The flood warning sign and lights, June 2015.

Then I walked past Pierce Mill and the path that goes under the bridge. It looked as if the water had risen over its banks, as there was a lot of mud and debris on the path. Walking through Melvin Hazen Park to get to Connecticut Avenue, the stepping stones to cross the stream were submerged. I found an alternative path on the south side of the stream, and made it to Connecticut Avenue. I crossed Connecticut and went through the Sedgwick Gardens parking lot to take the stairs that lead to the Melvin Hazen trail to Reno Road.

I had never seen this area under so much water. Part of the raised wooden pathway was submerged.

Flooding in Melvin Hazen Park

Floodwaters covered part of this raised pathway in Melvin Hazen Park.

I had to find a new route, so I made my way to Sedgwick Street. This connects to Tilden. There, I saw signs of orange clay had been washed down from the construction site of Moroccan Embassy.

Orange clay covers the sidewalk on Tilden by the Embassy of Morocco’s construction site.

The likely source.

It appears Forrester, the construction company, needs find a better way to deal with water runoff from its site. They should talk to Clark Construction, which faced its own challenges building Park Van Ness on a steep grade adjacent to Soapstone Valley.