The annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup, which takes place at several sites in Potomac, among hundreds throughout Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. is billed as a rain-or-shine event.
But organizers didn't plan of rain that fell Saturday — nearly 2 inches that fell at a sometimes pounding intensity, washing out roads and sending the river swelling.
"At some point you're standing there as the rain's pouring and you're completely soaked going, 'What are we doing?'"
said Burr Gray, a board member at the Potomac Conservancy and the site leader for the Locks 8 and 10 cleanup. Still, Gray said that 35 people came for at least some portion of the three-hour cleanup at his site.
"I was just very impressed," he said of the volunteers. "I think its real important for awareness of the river and not just for trash issues but for a lot of things like pollution and storm runoff."
When the storm lulled at around noon, the remaining volunteers were soaked, but laughed and joked as they got into their cars to head home to hot showers and dry clothes.
At Great Falls Tavern, about 10 volunteers picked up trash in what was a drizzle when the event started at 9 a.m., but had to take cover when the rain intensified at around 10:30.
Among the volunteers were Pyle Middle school students, and members of the Friends of Historic Great Falls Tavern, including Lorainne Kumm, 82.
"It just shows how much people love this place," said Elie Pisarra-Cain, a member of the Friends, of the volunteers who came out in the rain. "And they never quit."
THERE WAS FLASH flooding on River Road and other Potomac roads, but fire and rescue officials said that they did not have to respond to any serious incidents.
"As far as Potomac proper goes, it was surprisingly quiet. The biggest thing was the power outages," said Eugene Roesser, spokesman for Cabin John Park Volunteer Fire Department.
According to river cleanup organizers, it is impossible to postpone the entire event due to weather, though individual site leaders may choose to postpone their cleanups.
With only 45 percent of the registered cleanup sites reporting trash collection data, 70 tons of trash were removed by more than 2,600 volunteers at 108 of the 240 registered sites throughout the Potomac Watershed.
Many of the remaining sites have rescheduled cleanups for next weekend.
The forecast is for partly cloudy skies with a 20 percent chance of rain.