On Monday, June 27, McLean resident Cameron Dunlop decided to venture down his driveway to see how high the flood waters were on his property. He was astonished to see three kayakers whiz by on what would normally have been his bridge.
"These guys are ducking in and out of the trees, and they just flashed by," said Dunlop, who has lived on Ranleigh Road in McLean for 12 years. "They were flying."
Although the kayakers caught him off guard, dealing with flooding is nothing new for Dunlop. His property is a mere 500 yards from the Potomac River, and he frequently sees flooding as a result of trash and debris that is washed in from developments located upstream from him.
"We've seen flooding as a result of people putting trash in the river," said Dunlop. "It sort of builds up a dam on occasion... people who live upstream tend to throw their yard trash into the river."
Last week's record breaking rainfall took its toll on Dunlop's property. At one point, his mailbox was almost completely covered in water. Now that the rain has finally ended, Dunlop is left with a pretty hefty cleanup job.
"There is a lot of debris on the bridge," said Dunlop. "I've cleared as much as I can, but when the county gets around to it, I've got to get them to clear it."
Dunlop said that a lot of damage was also done to the sides of the riverbed. Several bags of rock were ripped away by the churning water.
"They've disappeared and they protect the sewer," said Dunlop.
LAST WEEK'S torrential downpours caused flooding across the region, and many residences and businesses in both McLean and Great Falls felt the wrath of the storm. According to the National Weather Service, Fairfax was hit with approximately 10.85 inches of rainfall between June 23 and June 28. Reagan International Airport saw 13.47 inches of rain, and Dulles International Airport saw 11.23 inches of rain.
"Our pump system has taken a pretty major hit," said Mike Henry, site administrator at Colvin Run Mill in Great Falls. "We took one under the chin."
The Colvin Run Mill pump is still standing, but the earth and surrounding piping have been washed away by floodwaters. Henry said that at this point, it is impossible to say just how bad the situation is.
"We're still assessing how much damage has been done," said Henry. "But we're not going to be grinding until we can figure out a way to get the water back down to where it should be, so we're effectively down for a while."
The mill and some of its historic exhibit pieces experienced some minor damage as well.
"Right now we're kind of hoping that the governor will push for a federal disaster relief so that we might be able to get some federal help on this," said Henry. "Fifteen years ago we replaced our pumping system and we were down for a whole season."
Riverbend Park was also affected by the heavy rain, although park employees must wait for water levels to go down before they can get a true gauge on the extent of the damage.
"At this point it's still at six or seven feet, and until it gets down to about two or three feet, or maybe even four, then we'll see if we have any major damage," said Jim Dewing, a naturalist who has worked at the park for 10 years.
According to Dewing, the rain took out the phone lines and the electricity at the park, as well as a couple of trees.
"And some of the trails, as the water ran down the hill, it scoured them out real bad," said Dewing. "We don't really have any idea yet of how bad... it will take a couple of days before we can see."
THE MCLEAN Community Center also fell victim to flood waters.
"We got it from the ground," said Joe McGovern, facilities manager at the center. "All of the rainwater drains to either one side or the other of the building, and on the parking lot side it all gets funneled through a relatively small drainage hole."
McGovern, said that normally the community center does not have problems with drainage. However, the record-setting storm was simply too much for the system to handle.
"We just had so much water, it was sucking our river rock into the opening and clogging it up, so by the time I got here, it was about three feet up the building and several inches inside the building," said McGovern.
Fortunately, the flooding only impacted the office area of the center, and no classes or activities were disrupted by the weather.
"We're kind of working around it and doing what we can," said McGovern.
Since people all around the area experienced flooding damage, McGovern said that the most difficult aspect of the situation was finding a company that was available to come in and deal with the problem. The center was flooded on Sunday night, June 25, but it was not until Thursday, June 29, that McGovern was able to find someone to look at the damage.
"We're dealing with a little dampness and a little smell, but all things considered, it could have been a lot worse," said McGovern. "It was an unbelievable volume of water in such a short time."