Officials urge residents to use care when driving in storms

Thursday, June 29, 2006

by Patrick Dunne

Staff Writer

Drivers need to exercise caution during thunderstorms, especially when flash-flood warnings are issued, county officials warned.

Donnie Crum of the county transportation department said with the amount of rain the area has seen, flash floods can happen anywhere. The most common threat is for vehicles to be washed off the road.

‘‘It doesn’t take much to move your car, only a couple of inches [of water] if it’s moving fast enough,” Crum said.

Roads near the Potomac and Monocacy rivers are the most easily flooded, but any stream can flood, as did the stream running along Route 17 near Myersville Tuesday night.

‘‘It doesn’t need to be a hurricane to cause flooding. A severe thunderstorm should do it,” Crum said.

According to the National Weather Service, a flash-flood warning is issued when excessive rain falls in a short period of time, usually six hours. However, several back-to-back thunderstorms also can cause flash floods.

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MARC trains delayed, stopped

Downed branches and trees wreaked havoc for Frederick County commuters dependent on the MARC trains.

Trains on the Brunswick line were canceled Monday, delayed Tuesday and canceled again Wednesday because of the weather.

‘‘This is just an unusual rainfall,” said Frank Fulton, deputy director of MARC trains. It is rare for Maryland Transportation Authority to shut down all three MARC lines, but flooding affected the Brunswick, Camden and Penn trains.

Normally, Fulton said, trains slow to 40 mph during flash-flood warnings, but there was nothing to prevent trees and branches from piling up on the rails.

Debris was cleared off the tracks on Wednesday, and Fulton said the schedule would return to normal on Thursday.