A draft report on what went wrong in the response to the flash flood that killed 10 dogs in Northeast D.C. in August last year includes a number of recommendations, but raises more questions for one local ANC commissioner.
The draft “after-action” report from D.C.’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency documents the events around the August flash flood that occurred along Rhode Island Avenue NE.
During the flooding, workers at District Dogs and a number of dogs struggled to escape as floodwaters eventually topped six feet inside the business.
The draft document includes the previously reported detail that the flooding at District Dogs was classified by a dispatcher as a “water leak” which led to a delay in the response to the business.
The report adds that “corrective action” has included training that encourages emergency dispatchers to use the code “water rescue” which “can and should be used for indoor flooding when appropriate.”
When asked about the draft report, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for the Eckington neighborhood Joe Bishop-Henchman told WTOP his initial reaction was that, “It contains a lot of embarrassing stuff [such as initially] miscategorizing the emergency which led to a very long delay of first responders getting to District Dogs.”
The report notes that the initial communication from the dispatcher calling the incident a “water leak” came at 5:10 p.m. The report continues: “Dispatch provided additional details of individuals and dogs trapped within District Dogs via radio at 5:22 p.m., ” when the Fire and EMS Incident Commander “observed individuals swimming out of the building and began rescue operations.”
The report also notes that stretch of Rhode Island Avenue NE has experienced “several flash floods in the last few years,” but is not in a federally designated flood zone, “and thus special planning and zoning considerations do not currently apply.”
That puzzled Bishop-Henchman, who said, “Everybody who lives here knew that this was a possibility, but we couldn’t get anyone to listen.”
Another recommendation in the report states that the building that used to house District Dogs should remain vacant until the D.C. government, the building owner and engineers, and the insurance carrier determine that the building is no longer a flood risk.
Bishop-Henchman said the fact that the building was ever OK’d for occupancy is curious.
“People just assumed, ‘Oh, they must have had a stairway in the back to get up or a backdoor or something.’ No, they didn’t,” he said.
He added that the District’s Department of Buildings “should be answering for why only having two exits below grade into a flood-prone area is acceptable.”
The report notes that the flood occurred when DC Water was getting close to finishing a $585 million five-year project — the Northeast Boundary Tunnel — which it said would “mitigate the impact of flooding in several areas including the Rhode Island Avenue NE Corridor.”
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