THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996 TAG: 9609090030
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 82 lines
Even as many of Virginia's rivers began to recede Sunday, communities along the southern Potomac braced for their own duels of sandbags against raging flood waters left in the wake of Hurricane Fran.
In most cases, the river was winning.
In Alexandria, police said the historic and picturesque Old Town district looked more like London in wartime, with sandbags packed high in doorways and around buildings.
Across the river in the nation's capital, the scene was similar in neighborhoods astride the Potomac. By late afternoon, many streets had been engulfed by rising, reddish-brown waters as the Potomac surged out of its banks.
``The crest is working its way down,'' the National Weather Service in Washington said.
The crest - as much as 16 feet above flood stage - reached Harpers Ferry by midafternoon Sunday and was expected in Washington and Alexandria overnight. It was expected to top off at 6 feet or more above flood stage, and many business owners fear they'll soon be joining the lengthening list of Fran's victims.
And the Atlantic hurricane season is only half over; the statistical peak comes Tuesday. And the tropics are still very active.
The season's eighth tropical storm, Hortense, was moving slowly westward through the northeastern Caribbean on Sunday, and showing some signs of intensifying after earlier losing strength.
At 11 p.m., its center was about 105 miles south of St. Croix, moving west near 6 mph. A west to west-northwestward motion is expected through today. Winds fluctuated Sunday but were back at 60 mph Sunday evening.
``It seems to be going on a trend of reorganization,'' said Mike Bono, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel in Atlanta. The future for the storm is unclear, however.
If it passes directly over some of the Caribbean islands, it would lose a lot of strength; if it stays over open waters, it could intensify. And weather patterns suggest it could easily follow a course similar to Bertha and Fran, coming at the southeast United States.
And a trio of tropical waves have come off the west African coast in recent days, although none has yet grown into a tropical depression.
As for Fran, its remnants moved into New York and Canada on Sunday. Despite having trekked about 1,000 miles inland, it remained well-organized and was pouring flood-inducing rains over New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Canada as it moved northeast toward New Hampshire and Maine.
Back in Virginia, flood warnings remained in effect Sunday night along the lower Potomac, the lower Shenandoah, and the Rapidan and the lower Rappahannock rivers.
In Richmond, a new $135 million flood wall was expected to easily deal with the flooding James River. Its openings were sealed Sunday as the torrents of the James continued to rise.
``This flood wall is obviously going to save millions of dollars of damage,'' Gov. George F. Allen told The Associated Press as he surveyed the massive wall screening the downtown area.
In South Boston, the Dan River crested at about 33 feet at 4 a.m. Sunday, and water levels began falling.
In Hampton Roads, a burst of heavy rain from afternoon thunderstorms brought some brief street flooding in low-lying areas prone to such flooding, but no damage was reported.
The storms grew in the moist, unstable mass of tropical air swept into the Southeast by Fran's passage. It helped spawn a line of severe, drenching downpours in areas where bad weather has already taken a high toll.
Sunday's storms caused power outages at a time when utility crews are still working around the clock to fix extensive damage.
Virginia Power had reduced the number of outages to 66,000 customers until Sunday's thunderstorms threw another 12,000 customers into darkness.
Still, a Virginia Power spokesman said the utility expects to restore most service by tonight. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Richmond, a new $135 million flood wall was expected to deal
easily with the flooding James River.
TRACKER'S GUIDE
STEVE STONE
The Virginian-Pilot
[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.]
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FRAN FLOOD by CNB