Heavy rainfall floods roads, closes schools

Monday, May 12, 2008

Beach Elementary, Windy Hill Elementary and Windy Hill Middle School were closed today and the remainder of Calvert’s public schools opened with a two-hour delay.

Director of transportation for Calvert County public school’s Leon Langley said the combination of power outages and flooding were the two major factors considered before he recommended that Superintendent Jack Smith call for a delay to all but the three northern county schools.

Flooding in Chesapeake Beach and North Beach has caused several road closures. Parking lots in the area of the two beaches looked like small ponds and traffic lights were out throughout the area in the morning and mid afternoon.

‘‘The northeastern quadrant of the county was the hardest hit by [the storm],” Langley said.

Langley ventures out with crew from the transportation department early in the morning checking road conditions and keeping in communication with local and state highway officials and tracking the pattern of the storm.

‘‘This was an unusual [storm]. The system did not move out as quickly as initially thought,” Langley said.

In addition to the two-hour delay and three school closings, Calvert County public schools reported that all after-school and evening activities would be canceled for Monday.

Southern Prince George’s and all of Southern Maryland were affected by today’s rainfall.

Charles County public schools were closed today and St. Mary’s County public schools were on a two-hour delay.

gphillips@somdnews.com