Yards and driveways flooded

By Amanda Stewart

Published: May 12, 2008

The residents of Lake Drive in the Manassas area stood huddled together in the middle of their street Monday after-noon, staring at where their driveways were supposed to be.

The heavy rains that hit the area late Sunday night and early Monday morning flooded the street and many of the houses along the small, windy road.

"This is bad," Lake Drive resident Steve Shields said. "This is just terrible. This is terri-ble."

Shields, who has lived on Lake Drive with his wife and two sons since 1999, said they've had floods before, but nothing like what happened Monday.

"It's happened, but not this bad. I haven't seen it ever get this bad," he said. "This is the first time it's been our house."

Shields said sewage water flooded his house and his living room had taken in about two inches of water.

The storm that whipped through region knocked out power for thousands and forced at least 31 Prince William residents to evacuate their homes, authorities said.

Rain came down steadily and winds reached a high of 21 mph at Dulles International Airport, the National Weather Service's office in Sterling reported.

According to the weather service, unofficial results show Woodbridge received close to 4.9 inches of rain-fall.

The Prince William fire department reported the county got 7 inches of rainfall since Sunday evening and Manassas officials reported the city received more than 3 inches of rain on Sunday and more than 5 1/2 inches since Thurs-day.

As of about 10 a.m., Dominion Virginia Power was reporting that 11,048 Northern Virginia customers were without power. By 5 p.m. that number had dropped to just over 3,130.

Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative customers without power had also dropped by the same time, with all but 38 outages in Prince William resolved.

Between Sunday night and early Monday morning, Prince William County fire and rescue workers rescued 18 people from vehicles stuck in flooded roadways. Fire department spokesman Randy Earl said there were no injuries reported.

The Prince William County Red Cross chapter also kept busy, offering assistance to four families displaced by flooding in Dumfries and nine families displaced by three residential fires.

Heavy rainfall along with downed trees and power lines led to 28 road closures throughout the area.

Of those roadways, Dale Boulevard between Mapledale Avenue and Nassau Drive suffered some of the most sig-nificant damage with a 20-foot deep by 25-foot wide gash stretching across most of three of the four lanes.

"A car could fall in there," VDOT spokesman Mike Salmon said of the washout that occurred around 4 a.m. Monday.

The road is expected to stay closed for at least a week while crews allow the area to dry out, investigate what caused the washout and make emergency repairs, Salmon said.

Until then, motorists traveling west on Dale Boulevard will use Ridgefield Road to Prince William Parkway to Hoadly Road to Dale Boulevard.

Motorists heading east on Dale Boulevard will use Hoadly Road to Prince William Parkway to Ridgefield Road to Dale Boulevard.

While the storm left transportation and power crews scrambling, things stayed relatively calm for local po-lice.

Sgt. Tim Neumann said the Manassas police department received no more calls for service "than any other rainy day."

Between Sunday and Monday, he added, there were just four car accidents reported.

The situation was about the same for county police, said Officer Erika Hernandez.

On Monday, there were 13 minor accidents, an additional six in which people complained of some type of injury, but nothing major, Hernandez said.

Prince William and Manassas remained under a flood warning until 5:30 p.m., but by mid-afternoon the storm sys-tem had for the most part made its way out to sea, a technician with the weather service said.

Today and Wednesday are expected to have much more favorable spring weather, but rain will be back in the fore-casts for Thursday and Friday, said Trina Heiser.

"It's kind of the same situation we just had, but nowhere near the [same] intensity," she said.

Back on Lake Drive, across the street from the Shields, a blue house was half-submerged in standing water. Next door, a house's basement was flooded, and six inches of water stood in the living room, neighbors said.

Monday afternoon a few homeowners stood outside in the still drizzling rain, watching the water level rise and fall.

"Everybody else is evacuated pretty much," Shields said.

Shields said he measured the water to be seven feet deep at the intersection of Lake Drive and Leland. The street sign marking that intersection rested just above the water level.

Staff writer Elisa Glushefski can be reached at 703-878-8062 and staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014. Staff writer Kipp Hanley contributed to this report.