Flash Flooding Results From Heavy Rainfall In Alexandria: Photos

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Over the past several years, residents have seen heavy rainfall weather events causing significant flash flooding in homes and streets. Early Sunday, Alexandria experienced another flash flooding event, with residents reporting flooding in homes and streets as well as sewage backflow issues.

The city's main flooding concern during recent flash flooding events has been the stormwater infrastructure not being able to handle heavy rainfall in a short amount of time. The city's stormwater infrastructure is designed to handle a 10-year storm, which has an estimated 10 percent chance of happening in a year. By definition, a 10-year storm can produce 2.28 inches of rain in an hour or 4.81 inches over 24 hours.

Sunday's storm resulted in more rainfall in a shorter amount of time. According to the National Weather Service's rainfall totals from Sunday areas of Alexandria received nearly 5 inches or above.

Residents shared images and videos of the flash flooding impacts overnight on Sunday. Drain ALX, a resident-driven campaign highlighting infrastructure issues that cause flooding, shared many images of flooding in and around homes.

This video below came from the Del Ray neighborhood.

Rosemont resident Chadsey Kittock, who told Patch about flooding impacts in her home in July 2019 and July 2020, once again saw flooding impact her home and street Sunday. She also documented flooding on her street, East Linden Street, and a rescue of a dog from a stranded car in September 2020.

One resident was out of town and saw flooding inside the home through a Ring camera.

Other residents have also experienced flash flooding in their homes for several consecutive years.

According to NBC Washington, the Alexandria Fire Department made water rescues during the flooding event, but no injuries were reported.

The latest flooding event came days after the city launched a flood mitigation grant program, providing assistance to property owners who implement flood mitigation measures. The grant program reimburses property owners up to 50 percent of project costs, up to $5,000, for flood mitigation measures on their property. Eligibility is currently limited to private residential property owners who have documented flooding from storms dating back to July 2019. Applications opened on Aug. 15.

As impacts of climate change combine with the city's stormwater capacity limits, storms with the ability to cause flash flooding concerns have been more frequent in recent years. After the 2019 and 2020 flash flooding events, city officials began pursuing an accelerated stormwater sewer projects. City Council adopted a doubling of the stormwater utility fee to help accelerate stormwater capacity projects and maintenance. Those funds will both go toward spot improvement projects and longer term stormwater capacity projects over a decade.

As outlined in Mayor Justin Wilson's newsletter, those longer term projects are:

• Commonwealth Avenue and Glebe Road: $34 million
• Ashby Street and Glebe Road: $16 million
• Hooffs Run Culvert Bypass: $60 million
• Edison and Dale Streets: $13 million
• Dewitt Avenue: $15 million
• East Mason Avenue: $1 million
• Notabene Drive and Old Dominion Boulevard: $4 million
• Mount Vernon Avenue, E. Glendale Avenue, E. Luray Avenue and E. Alexandria Avenue: $10 million
• E. Monroe Avenue and Wayne Street: $3 million
• Russell Road and W. Rosemont Avenue: $6 million
• Russell & W. Rosemont Avenue (south): $8 million

Alexandria and the region are under a flash flood watch Monday through 3 p.m. Forecasters expect showers and scattered thunderstorms, with stronger thunderstorms possibly able to produce 2 to 4 inches of rain per hour. Significant rainfall in a short amount of time can cause rapid rise of water in streams and creeks and in urbanized and poor drainage areas, according to the National Weather Service.