On this day in 1942, water was swiftly rising along the Potomac River, culminating in its highest level on record on Oct. 17 in D.C. (on Wisconsin Avenue NW in Georgetown) — 10 feet above flood stage. More than a half-foot of rain had fallen since Oct. 12 from the remnants of a tropical storm, including a calendar-day record 2.59 inches on Oct. 15. Water “covered the National Mall so thoroughly that the newly-built Jefferson Memorial looked like a little island,” History.com wrote.
As the river crested on the 17th, “1.5 feet of water covered Maine Avenue along the waterfront for one hour, slight damage was caused at the Navy Yard and hundreds of homes in Georgetown were flooded,” according to the journal Monthly Weather Review.
Parts of Central and Northern Virginia received more than a foot of rain where the flooding was described as some of the worst on record. “Numerous highway and railway bridges were washed away,” the Monthly Weather Review wrote. “County agricultural agents estimated that 1,000 miles of fence was destroyed. About 1,300 people were made homeless in Albemarle, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren Counties.”
Fredericksburg, where more than a dozen people died and 1,500 were driven from their homes by the swelling Rappahannock River, was particularly hard hit, according to The Washington Post. The river rose 17 feet above flood stage.
Additional reading: While war raged in the Pacific, Washington fought the great flood of 1942
Here are other notables from this date:
- Average high: 69
- Average low: 52
- Record high: 89 (1897)
- Record low: 30 (1876)
- Record rainfall: 1.38 inches (2002)
