ARLINGTON, Va. — High temperatures are causing problems for many people, including residents who still don't have their power back because of the July 8 flood.
On 14th Street in north Arlington, blocks of homes were flooded in the torrential rain storm. Basements were flooded to their ceilings and water reached several feet high on ground level floors.
"And it happened so fast, like that, it was the water up in the basement and the water coming in here," said Michelle Barrans, pointing to the back of home.
In their basement, which had been finished, the damp, flood-soaked walls have been torn off and are awaiting repairs.
Michelle and her husband Dave said they still had power the night of the flood, even though the electric panel was under water in the basement. They ponder their luck that nobody was electrocuted.
A new electric panel has been installed. But, they had to replace their one-year-old air conditioner after the flood destroyed it.
"The air conditioning just went up and smashed into our fence. The fence came off, so it was just a river of water flowing through here,. Swept the fence, our air conditioner, and then went on and took our cars down the street," said Dave Barrans.
With the high heat, it's like a one-two punch for neighborhoods hard hit by like this which were flood out last week. These street looked like a river. And even Tuesday, most of these homes still didn't have electricity.
"It couldn't have been any worse. You've got a flood a week ago and now you've got 100 degree weather coming this weekend," said Steve Nugent, owner of John Nugent and Sons Heating and Cooling which is installing a new air conditioner for the Barrans.
"The amount of calls we've got have gone up 50, 60 percent," said Nugent.
He's very concerned about people sitting in homes with no air conditioner.
"It's the unhealthy heat where things can turn from OK, you just got a broken air conditioner, to being really unsafe for somebody in a house. And that's the biggest fear for all air conditioning contractors. You're trying to get there, before anything bad happens to anybody that's struggling," said Nugent.
He says companies will bring window units if they can't replace the whole system quickly enough.
"The goal is to try to get them to where they can at least live in the rest of the house and things so they're drying it, because that moisture lead to mold, leads to problems that we don't want," Nugent said. He urges anyone who knows someone without heat, to check on them and try to convince they to move to a cooling center or relative's home with air conditioning.