Raw video: Woman clinging to tree in rain swollen Potomac River rescued by Montgomery County, Maryland firefighters. Also, failure to raise Georgetown flood wall swamps restaurants.
Slideshow from water rescue
Recent rains in the Washington area have sent the Potomac River out of its banks. The two big stories so far are the rescue of a woman caught on video in Montgomery County, Maryland and the flooding of the Georgetown waterfront in DC.
Story by Jay Mishkin at WUSA9.com:
Montgomery County firefighters rescued a woman clinging to a tree in the Potomac River. The woman was stuck near Darnestown.
Officials say she was kayaking and lost control of her boat. A fire department spokesman says they are taking her to a local hospital.
There have been several rescues in that section of the Potomac today, as high waters have created dangerous conditions.
Slideshow from Georgetown flooding
DC Fire/EMS units are on the Georgetown waterfront helping with evacuations after significant flooding in some buildings.
The affected area includes waterfront restaurants in the 3000 K Street, Northwest.
Cars were towed from flooded parking garages.
From The Washington Post's Patricia Sullivan:
Some businesses in the Washington Harbor area of the Georgetown waterfront were evacuated as a precaution about 10 a.m., said Pete Piringer, a spokesman for the D.C. fire department. The department shut off gas and electric utilities between 8 and 9 a.m., as rising water flooded the basement and parking garage, submerging some parked cars.
Katherine Siahaan, who works at Gelateria Dolce Vita and arrived about 7:30 a.m., said “We didn’t think it was going to be any trouble, but the water kept rising.” By 10 a.m., barstools and a cash register were floating around inside the shop.
Tony and Joe’s restaurant sustained the most damage, Piringer said. Most of the damage could have been avoided had the floodwall been in place, he said.
“We were quite surprised when we arrived on the scene and the floodwall wasn’t erected,” Piringer said. Around noon, with the help of a crane, the floodwall was raised.
