Water Rises in Sterling

Sept. 13, 2008

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The Wrong Way Home: It was already called Crooked Bridge, but it was much straighter — and safer — than this before flooding in May left the structure badly damaged, cutting off the only road to a pocket of houses south of Oatlands. Residents with four-wheel-drive vehicles were able to use a path through a cornfield, but many cars had to traverse the shaky bridge one last time and park along Lime Kiln Road. The bridge is privately owned, and county officials worked to give residents an alternative route. The Greenlea homeowners association is looking for contractors to work on the bridge, which it hopes to have refurbished by spring.

In the back of the building is the warehouse where food donations are dropped off. The crates on back wall are normally filled to brim.

Debris wrapped itself around one of Maudud Alam's dead evergreen scrubs in his backyard in Sterling during Hurricane Hanna.