Tropical Storm Lee

This past week we were hit by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee.  It started raining Monday evening, and rained pretty much through Thursday.  I don't know how much rain we got (still need to get that rain gauge), but I heard one report of 17 inches.  I can believe it.  I thought it was pretty much over by Thursday because we didn't get much rain during the day, but after we got home from work we got hit by another gully washer, and had a pretty good thunderstorm later that even resulted in a Tornado warning.  Friday they closed the base that I work at due to flooding and washed out roads in the county.  Friday afternoon we decided to drive around and see what we could see.  One of the wash outs occurred on Route 205, just past Round Hill Road on the way down to Colonial Beach.

Here is a view from the bridge just before Round Hill Road.  You can still see how high the water is.  The bridge was blocked off to thru traffic, perhaps because the state was worried about structural damage.

We walked on down to the site of the washout.  There were other folks out taking pictures as well.  There were two spots were the road was washed out.  This is the first spot, it only took out part of one lane.

And here is the big washout that took out the road.  Apparently two vehicles ended up in the hole.  You could see some busted plastic and glass in the bottom.

And here is the rest of the hole.

It must have been terrifying to drive into this hole, especially if the water was still high.  One of the women that we met there had driven a school bus full of kids from a football game in Colonial Beach through the same spot not too long before the road gave way.  She said the water was up to the steps of the bus.  Thank goodness that she and the other two school buses with her made it through safely.