Flood Worries And Some Relief In Irene's Wake
BALTIMORE (AP) -- As flood waters receded Sunday, thousands of Mid-Atlantic residents battered by Hurricane Irene prepared to start the week without electricity.
Along the Chesapeake Bay, watermen and scientists were eager to learn how the overnight deluge affected the ecology of the nation's largest estuary. And business owners in Maryland's Ocean City, grateful for relatively little wind damage, started preparing for a busy Labor Day weekend.
The Category 1 storm punished Maryland with up to a foot of rain and 73 mph winds. An 85-year-old woman was killed in Queen Anne's County when a tree knocked a chimney through the glass roof of the sunroom where she was sitting.
The National Weather Service said there is virtually no increased risk of flooding in the region in the next several days since most of the rain fell in relatively flat areas, not higher elevations.
Utility companies said it could take several days to fully restore power to at least 866,000 homes and businesses without power late Sunday afternoon in Maryland, Delaware, northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. At one point Sunday, the number of outages approached 1 million in the area.
More than 150 stoplights were knocked out in the Baltimore-Washington area. The disabled lights caused so much confusion that Maryland State Police declared it the most serious hazard of the day.
Federal agencies were scheduled to open as usual Monday but employees had the option of taking unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework. Officials said power outages and still-flooded streets could hamper the trips of some Monday-morning commuters. On Maryland's MARC commuter rail service, several stations along the Penn Line remained without power and state transit officials urged commuters to bring a flashlight. At the Bowie station, a pedestrian tunnel was being pumped out after flooding during the storm. "We recommend that passengers for Bowie State wear old shoes Monday morning," the agency advised in a message to riders.
Washington Mayor Vincent Gray, whose own home lost power, encouraged commuters to take the subway.
"Metro is moving just fine," he said.
In St. Mary's County, soaked by up to 10 inches of rain, a McDonald's that was among the few restaurants open Sunday was nearly overwhelmed by customers. Ironworker Mark Wooten snapped pictures of his 9-year-old son Cody, in a maroon Washington Redskins jersey, posing before a nearby flooded road.
Wooten said the storm spared his house.
"I was pleasantly surprised," he said.
So was Ocean City popcorn vendor Donald Fisher, who restarted his boardwalk operation Sunday.
"Come on down. We're still here," Fisher said.
Charlie Koetzle, a 10-year resident of the resort town, said the storm came at a bad time by forcing a citywide evacuation during one of the last weekends of the season.
"The beginning of the summer pays their rent," he said. "These last two weeks are where they make their money."
It could be days or weeks before those who make their living on the Chesapeake Bay begin to know how the storm affected crabs, oysters and fish, said Larry Simns, president of Maryland Watermen's Association.
He said a big infusion of rainwater can cause crabs to concentrate further south in the bay because they don't need to move north, toward the Susquehanna River mouth, for the fresh water they prefer.
Simns said oysters don't reproduce as well in fresh water. He said most watermen probably will return to the bay Tuesday since they'll need time to ready their gear and wait for calmer seas. Winds out of the northwest were gusting up to 25 mph in Baltimore Sunday.
Beth McGee, senior scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said runoff from a big storm can smother oyster beds with sediment and increase the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus -- largely from farm fertilizers -- blamed for causing "dead zones."
The U.S. Geological Survey said it was sampling along the East Coast for increased pesticides, E. coli, nutrients and sediment from the hurricane.
"When looking at long-term water quality trends and year-to-year variation, this hurricane could be a defining event for 2011," said Charles Crawford, coordinator of the sampling effort.
On Maryland's Eastern Shore, about 17 Dorchester General Hospital patients were moved to Memorial Hospital in Easton Sunday after the Dorchester facility sustained water and wind damage. The hospital discharged about a dozen others.
There were more than 120 closures of state-maintained roads in Maryland, with the bulk of the closures caused by high water and felled trees, according to the State Highway Administration.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
