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Laurel braves the storm

Residents evacuate, but no significant damage to homes

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Christopher Anderson⁄The Gazette Auto repair shop manager Larry Holder (left) and employee Scott Clark check the flood waters, which nearly surrounded the Laurel shop, near the MARC train station on Monday. About 2,000 electric customers lost power during the series of storms that pounded the region.

‘‘The water has receded and it’s going to continue,” Laurel city spokesman James Collins said. ‘‘The problem that we face now is the cleanup.”

Eighty residents who fled their homes in Laurel and Maryland City had returned by midday Wednesday, according to officials, who said there were no reports of significant property damage.

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, meanwhile, eased the release of water from the T. Howard Duckett Dam, which prompted voluntary evacuations to be issued in communities downstream beginning Monday.

One of the dam’s seven flood gates is expected to remain open at least through the end of the week, Collins said.

Since Saturday, storms have dumped more than 10 inches of rain on portions of the metro region, snarling traffic and putting residents in low-lying areas on edge.

Thunderstorms producing a small amount of rainfall are possible today, with the chance of rain 30 percent, according to the National Weather Service. No widespread, heavy rain was forecast through the weekend.

Related Photo gallery: The storm in pictures Prince George's County: WSSC: Duckett floodgates are closed Prince George's County: Rains leave flood of wreckage Prince George's County: Laurel braves the storm Montgomery County: Pregnant woman saved from raging floodwaters Montgomery County: County officials uncertain when residents will get green light to return home Montgomery County: No change overnight at Lake Needwood dam Frederick County: Teens’ bodies found Frederick County: Hearing cries, but unable to save three lives Frederick County: One of the worst storms in memory Frederick County: Officials urge residents to use care when driving in storms

At its peak on Tuesday a county-run shelter at the Maryland City Fire Department on Route 198 was housing 44 residents from the Brockbridge Road area, officials said. All residents had returned to their homes by Wednesday afternoon, even though portions of Brockbridge Road remained closed.

Renee Hall and her three sons, ages 6, 16 and 18, were among about 20 evacuees still at the shelter Wednesday morning. She said she made a mistake when she chose to ride out the tornadoes in College Park five years ago, when an oak tree fell on her house with she and her family inside.

‘‘I said I’m not going to do it this time,” said Hall, who lives with her husband and sons in the Parkway Village Mobile Home Park on the Brockbridge Creek.

Her husband nevertheless stayed behind, and informed her Wednesday that their home was dry.

The sun was shining as Hall sat a curb outside the firehouse waiting for a ride. Many others at the shelter had already headed off to work or doctor appointments.

James Weed, Anne Arundel County’s Emergency Management director, reported no property damage in the area and said water was receding from levels only slightly higher than that commonly seen during a single, heavy thunderstorm. Brockbridge will reopen once public works crews clear debris, he said.

The Route 198 entrance to Laurel Park also remained closed Wednesday because of standing water.

The city of Laurel, which issued a voluntary evacuation advisory for residents near the Patuxent River and opened a shelter Monday night, did not issue any warnings or open a shelter on Tuesday. Thirty-seven evacuees stayed at the Laurel Community Center overnight Monday.

Flood levels Lowest rainfall: Bowie, 4.79 inches Highest rainfall: Hyattsville, 13.12 inches (Between Friday and Wednesday morning) This is the wettest June on record for the District. The four-day total at Reagan National Airport was 12.11 inches, levels seen once every 300 years. Source: NOAA’s National Weather Service

Riverfront Park on Avondale Street will be closed indefinitely until water levels receded and damage can be assessed, Mayor Craig Moe said in a statement Wednesday.

Yellow caution tape still blocked entrances to the park on Wednesday, where part of a pathway was submerged and water reached sitting level on a bench and a picnic table.

Water levels had steadily receded since Tuesday, however, when the Patuxent River spilled over about half of the commuter parking lot near the American Legion building on Main Street. Vehicles filled about 25 spaces on Wednesday, with only mud and puddles on areas of the lot that were previously submerged.

At Riverfront and near the American Legion, the Paxtuxent River had the same coffee-with-cream color of a day before, but flowed at a slower pace and carried less debris.

Cars had also returned to the Fred Frederick Body Shop nearby, where standing water stopped just short of the garage on Tuesday, when body shop manager Larry Holder was optimistic about the forecast, but, said that after moving cars to higher ground, there was little else he could do.

‘‘Whatever happens, happens,” he said.

Moe, in his statement, praised the response of local and regional officials as well as the city’s Citizens Emergency Response Team.

‘‘The city of Laurel has shown what it can do in a time of natural crisis and rise above the call,” Moe said.

E-mail Steve Earley at searley@gazette.net.