|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Flood damage widespread but county ‘dodged the bullet’
A middle-of-the-night storm caused widespread flooding and damage in Prince William County earlier this week but there were no injuries or deaths, according to Patrick Collins, the county’s emergency services coordinator.
The trouble began last Thursday with severe storms that included a tornado in nearby Stafford County. However, it wasn’t until Sunday that the real problems started with about 8 inches of rainfall in Prince William.
“We had an unprecedented amount of interesting weather, to say the least,” Collins said.
The “interesting weather” resulted in the closure of 29 roads, the swift-water rescue of 18 people and the evacuation of 37 others, all due to what County Executive Craig Gerhart called “some conditions of severe puddling.”
Their tongue-in-cheek understatements belied the tension and relief that was palpable throughout the Board Chambers during the aftermath report on Tuesday. Despite hazardous conditions that arose in the middle of the night, there had been no lasting damage and no injuries during some scary moments.
Basements were flooded, 5,300 homes lost power and police officers were out all night trying to minimize the secondary damage from stranded residents, downed trees and flooded roads.
Several trees fell at historic Rippon Lodge and one dropped at the Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre but damage was minimal. A nature trail was also washed out along the Broad Run but “it’s only a wood chip trail so that’s going to be easily replaced,” Collins said.
As of Tuesday, several roads remained closed, most notably Dale Boulevard, where a large sinkhole had opened up across all four lanes of traffic.
Collins showed supervisors a picture of Dale Boulevard, where a perfect sidewalk crossed the edge of the giant hole like a bridge.
“VDOT’s road fell into the culvert but Prince William County’s sidewalk is still intact,” noted Coles Supervisor Marty Nohe (R) to general laughter.
But the big concern was not the roads or the trees but the fact that the worst of the storm hit in the early hours of the morning when most of the county was asleep.
“We all dodged the bullet here,” said Chairman Corey Stewart. “There were no deaths. But I think we’re pushing our luck.”
Stewart, a midwesterner from tornado country, said the early-morning storm makes him nervous and he asked officials to look into some type of early-warning siren or alert system.
“We really don’t have a good way of alerting people, waking them up in the middle of the night,” he said. “The next time we may not be so lucky.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.