Day after day of rain has not affected business activity as did the winter snowstorms that struck Loudoun in late 2002 and in January and February of 2003. As for county park and recreation activities, the story is a little different.
“The winter impact was much harder than this,” said Randy Collins, president of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, adding that he has not received any reports of rain hurting business in Loudoun or of any major events being canceled. Alternatively, retailers shut down for a few days to two weeks in response to the February snowstorm that dumped two feet of snow in Loudoun. Schools closed for nearly two weeks, and so did the Chamber offices for two full weeks.
“When people need to get out and do business, the weather doesn’t affect that, especially the rain,” Collins said. “Virginia having to deal with drought for many years, I think people realize the rain fills the reservoirs.”
Rain also has not affected tournament schedules at Loudoun schools, said Wayde Byard, school press officer, adding that schools participating in the tournaments have played at least the minimum number of required games.
“There was a little reshuffling of sports schedules, but we’re fine,” Byard said.
None of the major school activities had to be canceled or rescheduled, Byard said. “We have rain dates for most everything, so we’re in good shape,” he said.
THE RAIN has caused a few schedule changes for teams and leagues using county parks and recreation facilities.
"Certainly, the rain has affected the ability for teams and leagues to complete their scheduled games. To help out, we are scheduling makeup games," said Claire Smith, administration coordinator for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services.
The make-up games for adult sports offered through the department are scheduled on May 31, June 1, and June 14. The makeup games for youth sports are the responsibility of the leagues, since they operate independently of the department. The leagues use a field allocation system and will reschedule any rained-out games within their leagues.
"We assist as needed to get any makeup schedule," Smith said. "Our maintenance crews every day are assessing field conditions, and physically doing whatever they can to alleviate the conditions the rain leaves. ... We want them to play as much as they want to play. That's what we're here for."
The department has held scheduled recreation activities despite the rainy weather and has not had to cancel any events, Smith said. When weather conditions required, some of the events were moved indoors.
"We try to do what we can to adjust for weather conditions. We try to be flexible and improvise around the weather," Smith said.