Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Singin’ in the Rain

That’s all we’ve been doing the last few days out here in Northern Virginia . . .

One friend of ours has been flooded out of his home and lost his car because the small creek behind his house has now become a river. We were just at his house on Saturday night, having dinner in his newly-landscaped small back yard, admiring the new screened deck that he just put on the back of the house. When the area clears out, and he’s allowed to go back to his house, I am sure there will be a group of us going with him to help clean up and try to lift his spirits . . .

Another person we know, a young man who just started working for my department, has been almost flooded out of his Capitol Hill English basement apartment – this after being stuck at the airport an extra day because his flight was cancelled due to the storms . . .

It’s certainly not Katrina-level devastation going on here, but it is pretty bad. Mr. Random and I are lucky that we live on the top floor of a garden-style condo building, located on high ground. Previously, we rented a townhouse that had a basement entrance, and we remember having to break out the buckets and bail out a few times after the storm drain got clogged and everything backed up into basement – almost ruining everything we had stored down there . . .

This morning seems to be beautiful – sunny with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, but there are supposed to be more rainstorms coming over the next few days.

Should we be building an ark? Or is this some sort of sign? I mean, I’m fairly certain that with all of the water we’re going to have lying around, we’ll definitely have a plague of mosquitoes swarming about this summer . . .

Are any of you being deluged with the rain?

4 comments:

Virginia Gal said...

"are any of you being deluged by the rain?"

(jumping up and down with hand raised) me me me!!

Course I live in Northern Virginia, same place you do - so naturally I'm experiencing this as well.

Virginia Gal said...

This weather has been a bear, you know it's bad when they close the beltway for a mud slide (couldn't believe it when I heard it Monday morning).

Thankfully our basement has been spared, though our addition is leaking a little. My skirt was thoroughly soaked yesterday when I walked from Pentagon City to Pentagon to catch a ride. And don't even ask about what this rain is doing to my hair.

Merci said...

We've had quite a bit of rain, but we drain well here, so close to the sea (very sandy soil).

I lived in a home that flooded several times across 2 years - had major headaches and expense fixing the problem. I still get nervous during heavy rains just because of the experience. We had a 500 year flood in my area while we lived there -13 inches of rain in one night. I've never lived through a deluge like that, and I hope I never do again.

Hope DC dries out soon. They just ran more flood warnings for the Schuylkill across the TV screen, and I heard that Manayunk flooded earlier. Guess this is affecting the whole East Coast!

Kind of romantic, in a way: the same rain falling on us all.

Random Kath said...

Virginia Gal: Oy! Don't even mention the hair . . . my hair is both frizzy AND limp, if you can imagine. Such a pain! (And I'm sure I'm quite a fright at work too . . .)

Merci: Ah, the Schuylkill! I can't imagine it flooding, it's been so long since I lived in Philly. I'm glad you live in a well draining place now . . . I now vow never to live in any house that requires a sump pump or isn't already on a hill . . .