Comments on: Dear PoP – Flooding in Bloomingdale

By: IMGoph

IMGoph — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:23:39 +0000

this is what happens when you build on top of an undergrounded river or stream.

By: ogden

ogden — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:55:20 +0000

Y’all who’ve experienced flooding will be happy to know that the city this summer invested in repaving the alley between Spring Street and Spring Place because it didn’t drain properly.

Yeah. The ALLEY.

By: Pennywise

Pennywise — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:32:25 +0000

I’ve always been amused by this bit of geography. In DC, rich folk live on the river bottom and us poor folk live up the hills. One of the few places where the poor don’t live in flood zones! Not 100% correlated of course, but you get the idea.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:18:09 +0000

How do you install a backflow valve?

By: dcpublius

dcpublius — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:56:22 +0000

Also, the city is ‘working on it’. But it will be years before they fix the system in that area.

By: dcpublius

dcpublius — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:55:22 +0000

My asshole landlord didn’t disclose any of this information to me when I rented a basement in that area. The place flooded several times before I moved out in a few months. Landlord did install sump pump and backflow valve. They work, but they also fail on some occasions.

Other places in that area have the same problem.

Stay away.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:23:55 +0000

There are places in DC I would never live in an english basement, and houses we skipped right over when we were looking. They are fairly easy to identify with a topographical map. It’s not hard to predict where the flooding problems will occur. The stretch of Thomas St in Bloomingdale just north of where the flooding in this picture is pretty much guaranteed to get flooded whenever there is a sizable rain. It acts as a catch basin for much of the rain water from Bloomingdale and LeDroit. The sewer system is easily overwhelmed, but I hear it’s on the list to be upgraded.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:12:05 +0000

Or install a backflow valve and prevent it from happening in the first place?

By: Victoriam

Victoriam — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:10:45 +0000

OR just tell your basement tenants to buy renter’s insurance because the landlord is not responsible for their belongings.

By: Petworth Newbie

Petworth Newbie — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:58:18 +0000

News to all you Dupont Circle/Logan Circle/Bloomingdale/Shaw residents (once we moved to Adams Morgan we started calling it “the flats.”) You can expect sewage backing up in your basement every couple of years. Be prepared to re-finish that space and compensate your tenant whose belongings will be ruined.