Old Town Alexandria cleans up after storm floods waterfront streets
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (DC News Now) — Twenty-four hours after flooding overwhelmed the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, businesses continue to dry out.
Fans were seen inside The Outpost on Wales Alley and mats were drying outside of the Old Town Shop. The Starbucks on Union Street was closed due to electrical issues caused by the storm.
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“The last 24 hours have been very interesting,” said Jiotty Assimakopoulos, the sous chef at Mia’s Italian Kitchen. “We got warning about two days ago that we were going to get a massive storm surge. As usual we prepped out all the sandbags, got the tarps out.”
Assimakopoulos said about 10 inches of water flooded a stairwell in the restaurant, with about two inches of water pooling over onto the restaurant floor.
Crews were on hand throughout the night to handle cleanup.
“Using sump pumps, wet vacs, mops, towels,” he said. “[They were] able to really get this place back into service shape really fast.”
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Mia’s was back up and running by Wednesday morning.
“It just looked crazy out here, I couldn’t get to where I was parked,” said Madison Nuse, who interns at Common Sense Society on King St.
Nuse said she was surprised to see so much water was flooding up from the river.
“My supervisor was like, ‘wow.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about at first and then I saw all the water was up to the top,” she explained.
Alexandria Transportation and Environmental Services had crews working throughout the day cleaning up the waterfront and monitoring flooded streets.
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Although frustrating for some, Assimakopoulos said dealing with the flooding comes with the territory.
“We get a lot of business down here being on King St. It’s a catch 22. You have the location but you’re also right on the river,” he explained.
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