Monday, June 26, 2006

Life imitates art: Washington, D.C., is under water

As you may have heard, it is raining in Washington, D.C.

According to the radio news there was a mudslide that blocked the Capitol Beltway. Rock Creek Parkway is closed. Some of the subway stations shut down due to flooding. And while the animals in the zoo are fine, the parking lots are flooded.

Last year I read the Kim Stanley Robinson book Forty Signs of Rain, which is set in Washington. In the book, the flood did cover the zoo. It also got the halls of Congress and the National Mall. The book makes it clear the flood is the result of global warming. It is near future science fiction, published in 2004. The date of the story is vague, but it's easy enough to see it as 2006.

I just got yet another weather alert email from the D.C. government, warning me about more thunderstorms and flash floods. If they close the zoo, I'm really going to start worrying.

[reposted at 2:30 PM EDT 6/27 to fix glitches]

1 comment:

Diane Silver said...

On the other hand, Nancy, you could be in Kansas where we are about to dry up and blow away. And so it goes.