Crime & Safety
Heavy Rains Cause Flooding Damage
The lobby of M&T Bank on River Road flooded during last week's rains, causing the bank to close early on Thursday.
All appeared normal in the Potomac Place Shopping Center by last Friday afternoon, but the afternoon before it was anything but.
The M&T Bank located in the Potomac Place Shopping Center closed early Thursday, Sept. 8, when water from several days of rains rushed across the parking lot and seeped under the lobby door, flooding the main floor of the bank.
The M&T Bank is located at the River Road end of the shopping center and is prone to flooding when the rains are heavy, fast and long-lasting, according to Morty Trupp, owner of the Fashion Craft Cleaners located a couple of doors down from the bank.
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Trupp noted that this is not the first time the bank has flooded, citing another incident about 5 years ago. An employee of the bank, who wished to remain anonymous, said they closed the bank about 30 minutes early Thursday and opened an hour late Friday morning to give the carpet time to dry out. By the end of the day Friday, there was no visible damage to the lobby.
The bank building wasn’t the only one to experience flooding last week. Potomac residents felt the affects of heavy rains as well, according to Rachel Foley, a sales associate at Strosnider’s Hardware.
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“Customers have been coming in complaining about flooded basements and buying anything that has to do with cleaning up water,” Foley said. “We have sold a lot of sump pumps.”
The Washington D.C. Metro area saw approximately 2.8 inches of rain fall Thursday and 1.39 inches of rain fall Friday, according to the National Weather Service. So how many garbage cans and kiddie pools does that equal?
“The rain was coming down so fast that the garbage cans outside were filling up in minutes,” Foley said. “We put out a little kid’s plastic pool just to see how fast it would fill up.
. Esworthy Road experienced heavy traffic due to cars detouring around the closed section of River Road.
Pepco, Comcast and Verizon all had crews out working on the downed wires. By 4 p.m. a single lane of traffic was getting by.
Did you experience heavy flooding in your area? Send us picture or tell us your story in the comments.
