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County officials uncertain when residents will get green light to return home

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Chris Rossi⁄The Gazette Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. shakes Jammette Wilson's hand while visiting evacuees at Wheaton High School.

About 2,230 people have been evacuated and are staying in three shelters in the county or elsewhere. The majority of early-morning evacuees from Aspen Hill went to Wheaton High School, where 450 people registered with the American Red Cross as they arrived, said Jessica Adams of the Red Cross.

By Wednesday afternoon some 200 people remained at the shelter, as many left to go to work or elsewhere.

At least 100 people stayed in their homes, said Dee Howard of the Montgomery County Department of Fire and Rescue Services.

Residents with pets were asked to evacuate to the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg. Fewer than 20 people reportedly went there.

A second round of evacuations took place late Wednesday afternoon when residents in homes along several blocks of Parkwood Drive in Bethesda and Kensington were asked to leave. Police confirmed that evacuated homes spanned at least three blocks between Cedar Lane and Knowles Avenue, but did not include every house. On some blocks, only one side of the street — the side that borders Rock Creek — was evacuated.

Residents in those communities were welcomed at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda.

Neighbors gave conflicting explanations for the evacuation, with some attributing it to current flooding along the creek and some saying it was in anticipation of future flooding if the Lake Needwood dam breaks.

When and if the dam can be repaired depends on slowing the leaks, said Michael F. Riley, Park and Planning’s chief engineer who joined Romer at a news conference in Gaithersburg.

‘‘The seepage is the problem. The dam has the strength to hold back the water, but if the seepage increases then that makes the situation worse,” he said.

Riley said engineers from his office as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are monitoring the seepage level.

As hundreds of evacuees linger in makeshift shelters, engineers and workers continue efforts to shore up leaks at the base of the Lake Needwood dam, an earthen berm restraining waters swollen 25 feet above normal levels.

At some point since Tuesday afternoon, several small holes appeared in the dam and water began to trickle out. Concerned about wave of floodwater breaking through to the Twinbrook and Aspen Hill communities downstream, county officials began evacuating residents in the early-morning hours Wednesday.

The leaks appear to have stabilized since 8 a.m., as convoy earthmovers carted sandbags and gravel to the damaged area. Workers covered the trouble spots with the material, trying to add more weight in the hopes it would inhibit additional leakage.

‘‘The good news is that [the leaking water] is clear, meaning it isn’t washing soil away from the dam,” Riley said. ‘‘The bad news is that it’s not decreasing, either.”

The water level of the lake has been dropping at the rate of about one inch per hour, Riley said Wednesday afternoon. The leaks could either be the result of water running through native rocks along the side of the dam or a channel that developed beneath the dam soil itself, he said.

A device was built on site to help engineers determine whether the leak is increasing or not. At 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, Riley said the leaks were flowing at constant levels.

Evidence of the high water was easy to spot, as an overflow area normally used for parking and other park buildings were flooded with brown water.

Downstream, hundreds of people were evacuated from the Rock Creek Terrace Apartments on Veirs Mill Road and other nearby streets, mostly in Aspen Hill.

The first residents were taken by bus to Wheaton High School.

People woke up to police banging on their doors as early as 2 a.m. informing them about the evacuation. They only had a few minutes to dress and grab some items — pillows, blankets, medicine and important documents — before heading to the shelter either by car or on buses, evacuees said.

Some praised the county’s decision to evacuate.

It’s good that the county didn’t take any risks and evacuated people before there was a problem, said Yohannes Wabreha of Rockville, who was at the shelter with his wife and three children. Help came too late in New Orleans, he said.

Although a posted sign informed people to tell volunteers about any special needs or diets, it was a message that an older Korean couple missed. They did not speak English, and Christine ‘‘Tina” Clarke from County Executive Douglas M. Duncan’s office worked swiftly to locate a translator who could communicate the couple’s needs to volunteers.

‘‘He just didn’t look well,” Clarke said about the husband. She discovered he was recovering from a stroke and could not eat solid foods.

She was able to get his wife on the phone with a translator while a Red Cross volunteer was sent to get food he could eat.

County staff encountered people with other health conditions like diabetes and asthma, and people who needed wheelchairs, said Kay Aaby from the Department of Public Health. Some did not have their medication, Aaby said, and staff was trying to get it for them.

By the afternoon, snacks, drinks and diapers from the Wheaton Giant grocery store came pouring in. The Salvation Army also donated lunch, Adams said.

Wabreha of Rockville walked from the cafeteria with lunch boxes piled high for his family waiting at a table in the hallway. He was planning to take them to a cousin’s home in Virginia later, but his children had a different idea. After playing in the gym, they wanted to stay.

‘‘For them, it’s a fun day. They don’t want to go home,” Wabreha said.

It was a different story for those who did not move to the shelter.

Edwin Fugel, 76, said he spent the night in his car. which he drove to Wheaton Woods Elementary School in the heart of Aspen Hill.

‘‘It’s not a big deal,” he said stoically. ‘‘When you can’t do anything about Mother Nature, what are you going to do?”

Some living in the complex’s three-story apartments refused to leave.

‘‘The first thing they say is they have no place to go,” said Montgomery County Police Officer Alex Miranda, standing in the parking lot of Rock Creek Terrace.

The first sunny day since the heavy rains began frustrated some evacuation efforts.

‘‘People don’t want to believe that it’s going to happen,” he added, reflecting on the possible floodwaters.

One residence on nearby Oriental Street, the home of Vicki Johnson, was evacuated. Park Police knocked on her door around 2 a.m., she said, telling her to collect any medication she may need and leave within five minutes.

‘‘Five minutes,” she said, standing outside her home at noon. ‘‘It was scary. In 10 minutes we were at the local Dunkin’ Donuts getting ourselves a cup of java.”

Johnson and her family later came back, got their camper and spent the remainder of the night sleeping in the parking lot of the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy, also in Aspen Hill.

By 10 a.m. she was back home, anxiously watching the sunny skies for more rain.

‘‘I’m not unhooking the camper (from the truck), I can tell you that,” she said.

Concerned residents should call the county’s emergency help line at 240-777-2600.

Summer school openings postponed

The county school system’s Extended Learning Opportunities Summer Adventures in Learning programs at Veirs Mill and Wheaton Woods elementary schools in Rockville will not open as scheduled on Thursday due to the emergency conditions resulting from this week’s record rainfall.

The program is expected to open for the summer session on Friday, though a final decision will not be made until Thursday afternoon.

ELO SAIL programs at 19 other elementary schools will open as scheduled on Thursday.

For more information go to www.mcps.k12.md.us.

— Sean R. Sedam