Huntington, Va. residents hope storm water spares area prone to flooding. White mark on pole is hi-water line. #WTOP pic.twitter.com/l85jKGNuUQ
— Mike Murillo (@MikeMurilloWTOP) October 1, 2015What's being handed out to residents in Huntington from @ffxfirerescue. #WTOP pic.twitter.com/54qX1BJSKr
— Mike Murillo (@MikeMurilloWTOP) October 2, 2015Also an emergency checklist. #WTOP pic.twitter.com/zkEB5kHY8d
— Mike Murillo (@MikeMurilloWTOP) October 2, 2015
WASHINGTON — In the Huntington section of Fairfax County, firefighters go door-to-door, handing out flyers warning residents about several inches of rain in the forecast.
“This is the area that has been prone to flooding the last several severe storms that we’ve had,” said Capt. Steve Norris, with Fairfax County Fire Rescue.
When heavy rain is in the forecast, people who live in this area make plans to seek higher ground. Thursday night, Fairfax County says the forecast doesn’t lead them to believe homes will flood, but residents like Jennifer Moore Meadows are making plans in case the projections change for the worse.
“A 12-foot river running down our street, that’s the worst case scenario,” said Meadows.
Not long after Meadows spent $30,000 to renovate her basement, stormwater from the Cameron Run Watershed poured into it after a storm, destroying it.
After several floods over the past few years, she and many of her neighbors have decided to leave their basements empty, in anticipation of another flood.
“Getting flooded again and again and again, it’s a little tiring,” said Lahcen Bagoulla, whose home has inundated with water three times since 2006.
Bagoulla has lived in the neighborhood for many years and says flooding wasn’t a problem in this area, until the 2000s. He believes road construction and new development are to blame.
With the arrival of a nor’easter and the path of Hurricane Joaquin uncertain, Brenda Matthews and her family is preparing their home.
“We’re just kind of moving everything up from the basement because we discovered last time that my insurance doesn’t cover personal belongings in a basement,” said Matthews.
Fairfax County plans to build a flood wall in the area to help prevent flooding in this neighborhood of water weary residents, but construction won’t begin until 2017. The $30 million Huntington Levee isn’t expected to be complete until 2019.
Lahcen Bagoulla, like many of his neighbors, says the levee can’t come soon enough.
“We’ll probably be flooded a few more times before that is done, and that would be too bad,” Bagoulla said.
