A nor’easter is bringing coastal flooding to the East Coast, flooding Virginia streets and canceling some weekend events in Maryland.
Old Town Alexandria saw flooding along the Potomac River early Thursday morning, as abnormally high tides led to water covering some streets on the riverfront.
Streets on the Strand and the end of King Street were covered in inches of water blocks inland from the river’s edge. As of Thursday, no flooding into businesses or buildings was reported, but parks and some roads were affected.
The National Weather Service reports that tides are two to 2.5 feet higher than normal in Old Town, causing the flooding in low-lying areas.
Old Town’s emergency management teams are keeping an eye on conditions for the news few days, with high tides in the morning and evening expected to cause such flooding through the weekend.
“Again, this is something that, when we have tides like this, when we’re at what we call moderate flood stage, that water starts to come in. And as the tide goes out, the water will recede.” said Marc Barbiere, Alexandria’s emergency management coordinator. “This is kind of, unfortunately, part of living along the beautiful Potomac here.”
“Once this recedes, we’ll have folks — they’ve already been out this morning and they’ll be cleaning some of the debris up that’s come up out of the water,” Barbiere said. Then, it’s just a matter of watching for the next high tide, close to 7 p.m.
Local residents are used to the conditions, and see making minor adjustments as part of life.
“I am having to change my route and not go so close to the river, to circumvent all this water that’s in the street,” said Old Town resident Ed Hall.
The nor’easter is making a bigger impact at DMV beaches, particularly in Ocean City, Maryland.
On Thursday afternoon, the massively popular Oceans Calling music festival announced that all Friday events were canceled. Strong winds and coastal flooding prevented organizers from putting up event tents and making other preparations.
Massive waves could be seen battering crew as they tried to set up stages in a video posted to Facebook on Wednesday. Sea spray flies off the peaks of the waves as strong winds gust off the beach, slowing construction equipment puttering down the sand.
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“Despite the extraordinary efforts of our production, site, safety teams, and the city staff/officials the impacts of this week’s continued weather, including beach erosion that affected the festival site, have made it impossible to safely complete the build in time for Friday,” the Ocean City Fire Department and Oceans Calling organizers said in a joint statement.
“As a result, Friday will not move forward as planned. The safety of our fans, artists, crew, and community must come first.”
Organizers said 1-day tickets for Friday, and one third of 3-day tickets to the festival, will be refunded within 30 days.
Washington, D.C. and a series of counties in Maryland and Virginia have issued coastal flood warnings or advisories through the weekend. Get the full list here.
