Flood, Arlandria, 1972

"Flood, Arlandria, 1972"

(c)1972 Jeffrey John Fearing

This photo is sort of my homage to FSA photographer Dorothea Lange. I took this and a series of images on Mt. Vernon Avenue in an area bordering Alexandria and Arlington, known as 'Arlandria.' Today it is more commonly know as 'Delray.' This is in Northern Virginia, directly across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.

This was June 1972 and Hurricane Agnes had taken a path up the Chesapeake Bay, bringing it closer to DC than any hurricanes before or since. Most of the resultant damage was in the form of flooding. Four-Mile Run creek overflowed its banks and the water-line in this part of town reached the 2nd floor of some of the apartment buildings.

Today, the Army Corps of Engineers (can you say "Katrina"?) has taken steps to prevent such flooding again and so far so good. Mt. Vernon Avenue is now known for the Americana music club The Birchmere, which is a couple of blocks up the road on the left, just beyond the Esso station (At the time, gas was selling for about 29.9/gallon).

This was 35 years ago so I'm guessing the little girl in the rain coat is in her 40's now. I think I was still using my Mamiya-Sekor 1000-DTL 35mm camera then, using Tri-X film.