Extreme DC Storms Snarl Flights, Disrupt Car and Rail travel
Extraordinarily wet weather made it a rough morning for travelers today near the nation's capital.
Flooding temporarily closed the George Washington Memorial Parkway, one of the main access roads for Washington Reagan National that runs adjacent to the airport. This prompted advisories for travelers to use the alternative Route 1 entrance or take Metro.
The storm delayed flights at Reagan National, with 66 departures, or 14% of flights, delayed as of 11am eastern, FlightAware.com data shows. At Baltimore/Washington 30 flights were delayed and at Washington Dulles 37 flights were delayed.
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) spokesman Micah Lillard says six flights bound for Dulles were diverted due to the storms, but added that there was no flooding at the airport.
Dulles and Reagan National are now operating normally following the storm, Lillard says.
Operations at Baltimore/Washington (BWI), which is northeast of downtown Washington, were similarly continuing normally, according to BWI spokesman Jonathan Dean.
Fliers were not the only ones inconvenienced by the storms. Flooding temporarily stopped six trains on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor south of Washington, DC, reports USA Today.
"Earlier this morning, we had six trains stopped due to flooding/washout conditions on CSX tracks, just south of Alexandria, Virginia," Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said to the newspaper, though the rail carrier has since indicated operations were returning to normal.
Amtrak said on Twitter that trains were running again by 11:46am eastern.
