Heavy rains over the weekend flooded over the sidewalk and poured into a spa and boarding center for dogs in Northeast D.C. News4’s Mark Segraves reports.
Heavy rain over the weekend flooded sidewalks and poured into a spa and boarding center for dogs in Northeast D.C. as more than 40 dogs were inside.
All the dogs were OK, but Jacob Hensley, the owner of District Dogs, is pleading with D.C. officials to do something.
On Friday night, a flash flood swamped Rhode Island Avenue outside of his business.
"In that 5 or 10 minutes, our facility is just trashed," Hensley said.
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The water was so high and swift that it lifted a car onto the curb.
Security video shows the water rising from the streets right into Hensley's day care facility.
"We go into crisis control," he said. "It's pretty crazy. Luckily, the dogs are OK. The playrooms were safe; the water didn’t back up in there."
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Three days after the flood, he’s still cleaning up. This is the second time in three weeks that floods on Rhode Island Avenue seeped into his store.
"The flood did not happen at all during construction, which was over a year ago, so I’m really surprised to see that it started flooding," Hensley said.
Hensley has reached out to the city about the flooding and what can be done to prevent it. He is still waiting to hear back.
News4 also reached out to the city, but we have not heard back.
D.C. Water has two ongoing construction sites in the area, but a spokesperson for the utility told News4 that construction project is not impacting the flooding along Rhode Island Avenue.
