To the Editor:
Just recently, a great deal of interest has been shown in investigating the after effects of the flooding of Ellicott City, Md. Much like Alexandria, Ellicott City was founded some 244 years ago, and has been overdeveloped to the point that developments are increasingly depositing large volumes of rain water on its streets and in the Potomac at an alarming frequency. Since Alexandria is not too far removed from Ellicott City’s area of rainfall, and we are developing at an extremely rapid rate on the waterfront, we should be paying greater attention to our flooding abatement needs.
Some people are under the impression that waterfront flooding only occurs around King and Union streets, but that assumption is wrong. (Although that particular area is flooded a number of times throughout the year, this is mainly due to the city not ensuring that the back flow preventer installed a year or so ago has worked satisfactorily.) As some others may recall, Hurricane Isabel struck Alexandria in 2003, and caused a great deal of damage (especially to vehicles) throughout the entire waterfront. Due to this, residents of the Backyard Boats development lost most of their cars parked in their underground garage, and Harborside residents lost a number of vehicles parked inside its street level garage. In fact, I stood in over two feet of water in the Harborside garage the night the hurricane hit.
The Alexandria City Council approved the highly contested Waterfront Plan in which $33.1 million was allocated for a promenade along the waterfront that will also serve as a major restraint to flooding, according to the city engineers. However, many citizens, (including maritime engineer Tony Kupersmith, who has a great deal of maritime experience) did not agree with the city flooding plan. On a number of occasions, I asked the city to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to come in and review our plans, but to no avail.
We are therefore now at a point where nothing has been done in the last year to curb flooding, which is especially egregious since we have six new major developments beginning to take shape along an eight-block waterfront stretch. The Alexandria City Council should not have allowed all of these developments to occur simultaneously; two at a time would have been more practical and prudent. Although flooding abatement was always highlighted as the principal reason for waterfront development, yet concern for flooding has taken a back seat to high density developments. This needs to be addressed immediately before we suffer the same fate as those residing in Ellicott City. As Santayana has said, “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Townsend A. “Van” Van Fleet
Alexandria