How long can you tread water?

Flooding has closed two Metro stations in downtown Washington. All VRE commuter rail service and one MARC line are suspended entirely due to flooding, felled trees and trains sitting motionless on the tracks. A mudslide closed the beltway. Constitution Avenue, the grand boulevard on the north side of the National Mall that was once a canal, is once again. Federal agencies are shutting down left and right. The city some call the world’s most powerful is grinding to a halt, thanks to seven inches of rain in a six hour period, on top of freak storms just days before.

I’d consider building myself an ark, but I don’t know what a cubit is.

Update: 2:40 pm The list goes on and on. According to the Post, in addition to what I mentioned earlier:

• CLOSED: The headquarters buildings for the Internal Revenue Service, the Commerce Department and the Department of Justice.
  
• CLOSED: The National Archives, the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History.
  
• CLOSED: MARC's Camden line.
  
• CLOSED: US Route 50 near Kenilworth Avenue, VA Route 110 near the Pentagon, Washington Boulevard in Arlington, and countless smaller streets all over the region.
  
• Chevy Chase is under knee-deep water and parts of Maryland's eastern shore are evacuating.
• FELLED: 140 year-old tree that stood on the White House lawn, right outside the Oval Office window.

And it's still raining.

Tags: environment