It’s Soggy in Foggy Bottom as Potomac Floods Banks : Monuments Shut, Traffic Snarled

The Potomac River surged over its banks into Georgetown today, flooding a fashionable shopping strip and leaving tourist areas of the nation’s capital deserted as officials closed national monuments.

The chocolate-brown water, brimming from days of rain and floods upstream, was expected to crest at 14 feet, exceeding flood stage by 7 1/2 feet, by 6 p.m. today, said a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It had reached 10 feet by 9 a.m.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that water levels in the nation’s capital reached the third highest ever recorded and the highest since Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

Swift muddy waters swept up one street, lapping up against the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

U.S. Park Police closed the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials late Wednesday to keep curious tourists out of the area.

‘Not in Any Danger’

“The memorials are not in any danger,” parks spokeswoman Sandra Alley said. “We’d be in real trouble if water reached the top of the Washington Monument. But we want people to stay away for safety reasons.”

Alley said the basement of the Jefferson Memorial, which is on the Tidal Basin, probably would take in some water.

Some low-lying streets in Georgetown were under about 4 feet of water by mid-morning. Merchants placed sandbags around their stores to prevent water damage and carried expensive merchandise to higher ground.

Jim Golden, who works in the Watergate Hotel, stood watching as the waters flowed several hundred feet from the complex.

“I’ve seen pots and pans and everything floating down the river,” Golden said. “It’d be a hell of a ride in a canoe.”

Commuters trying to get into Washington from northern Virginia ran into massive traffic jams after U.S. Park Police closed a section of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, the scenic roadway that winds along the river.

In the historic Old Town section of Alexandria, police reported 12 feet of water along King Street, and said numerous shops and restaurants in the tourist area were damaged.

Farther upstream on the Potomac, water 11 feet deep covered the Richmond, Va., farmers’ market today.

4 Days of Rains

Four days of heavy rain pushed rivers in the middle Atlantic states to their highest crests in more than a century, forcing at least 20,000 people to flee their homes and inflicting more than $350 million in damage.

The death toll stood at 38--18 in West Virginia, 16 in Virginia, 3 in Pennsylvania and 1 in Maryland--and authorities in West Virginia said they could not account for another 43 people in flooded areas.

The rain ended Wednesday and Appalachian rivers began receding, but the water surged downstream under sunny skies toward Richmond and Washington.

In Virginia, the James River surged to more than 29 feet at the Richmond city locks, and water spilled across busy Broad Street.

Vegetables, fruit and flowers floated in 12 feet of water near the farmers’ market.

“The flood has turned lower Richmond into Lake James,” said a radio reporter watching the river from the skyscraper City Hall observation deck.

Three of Richmond’s seven bridges including the Interstate 95 span over the James were closed, snarling traffic.