Evening star., 1932-09-06
Fifth and Ingraham Section
Is Flooded to Depth of
Six Feet.
FIREMEN AND POLICE
RESCUE MOTORISTS
Traffic Crippled as One and Three
Quarters Inch of Rain Falls
in Hour.

emergency crews were repairing DAM
age today in the wake of the heaviest
rainfall in more than four years, which
broke the heat wave last night, but
inundated a low area around Fifth and
1ngraham streets to depth of almost
6 feet, Narrowing motorists and flood
ing cellars in the vicinity.
Almost an inch and three-quarters of
rain fell between and 10 o'clock, bring
ing the mercury down after day Of
oppressive heat blamed for more than
$50 prostrations among spectators
watching the Labor day parade of fire.
men during the late morning and noon.
The storm spread lesser damage over
wide areas of nearby Maryland and
Virginia last night. Lightning started
three small fires in Montgomery County,
the viaduct under the Baltimore G.
Ohio tracks near Silver Spring was
temporarily flooded and a number of
accidents resulted from slippery high
ways.
Almost 100 employees of the District
Sewer Department were at work today
after night of emergency duty, wash
ing heavy deposits Of silt into the drains
for blocks about a drainage pocket"
centering at the intersection of Fifth
and Ingraham streets.
rs Machines Trapped.
yryl,o,, tho c,lJa,, IaJ,,oa craY,t Wa IN
ington, water flooded the streets from
four directions on this intersection,
stalling automobiles and engulfing about
25 machines in muddy water estimated
to have reached a depth Of feet at
the deepest point.
Mr.. and Mrs. Ira Priddy Of $40 Pea
body street were caught when their ma
chine stalled in the converging water.
In less than 10 minutes they were stand
ing on the seat of their automobile in
a deep overflow from the overtaxed
drains and had to swim to the porch
of nearby residence, assisted by Will
liam Donnelly of 5305 Fifth street
Firemen responding to an alarm from
a nearby box waded and swan about
in the overflow, searching if1iindated
automobiles for stranded motorists and
finally concentrating their efforts on
towing the machines from the flooded
sections of the streets.
Thirteenth and Decatur Flooded.
The section, as on previous occasion
some three years ago, was flooded to
depth ranging from few inches to
6 feet between Fourth and Eighth, In
graham and Hamilton streets, while
residents in the vicinity of Thirteenth
nd nnnfNr1Ctc
from stalled machines by wading in
overflowed water up to their armpits.
The strip Of parkland bounded by
Emerson and Decatur and Thirteenth
streets and Arkansas avenue was tenn
porarily flooded to a depth of several
feet. Many cellars were flooded, some
to a depth Of feet, in this vicinity.
Advances Cause for Flood.
The food at Fifth and Ingraham
streets was caused by denuding of ter
ritory to the east by real estate opera
tors four years ago, according to j. B.
Gordon, director of the department OF
sanitation. In addition, he said, the
territory is badly laid out, so that in
some cases the street grades lie across
instead. of along the drainage slopes.
This results in a condition making for
llOOOS III tlillCo VI AdAiiB AAS ooAo'
In theory, streets should be laid out
so that the rain will be carried along
the surface to the river, in the absence
of any stormwater sewers. But in this
section if there were no stormwater
sewers a lake 20 feet deep would be
made in every storm such as last
nights.
There is a combined system sewer 9
feet in diameter below Fifth and In
graham streets, but APPARENTLY this is
not enough to handle the enormous
floods that sweep down the bare terri
tory from the east in heavy rain. The
corner of Fifth and Ingraham is a
drainage pocket" as the two streets
slope down to the corner from four di-
rections. To cure this there are II
drainage basins at the corner instead of
the normal four.
Gordon said that studies have been
in progress for long time designed to
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