Thus screamed the 2 1/2 inch high front page headline in Friday’s Virginian-Pilot. The accompanying article laid out how a simple malfunction created chaos for Hampton Roads drivers.
A severe electrical and rain storm rolled across the bridge-tunnel Wednesday night, causing power outages and power surges. Apparently the power issues damaged a water main pump and possibly caused a water main break in the westbound tunnel. The malfunctions caused the pump house to fill with water, eventually overwhelming it and water seeped into the tunnel’s travel lanes.
The water pooled 4 to 6 inches deep at the mouth of the tunnel on the Hampton side. Tunnel staff were unaware of the problem until about 6:30 a.m. The problem was not detected earlier because the alarm system alerting the control room of a failure is electric and also malfunctioned. Water was shut off and the westbound lanes were closed.
Traffic was diverted from the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel to the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel. Of course, there is no direct route on the Southside of Hampton Roads to the MMMBT (the convoluted route back down 64 to 664 doesn’t count, in my book). So that dumped a lot of traffic onto the streets of Norfolk, which, due to HarborFest and light rail construction, already has a lot of closed streets.
I watched this drama unfold via Twitter yesterday from the comfort of my home. I saw reports of 20-mile backups at the MMMBT, delays at the James River Bridge due to downed electrical lines, a 3-vehicle accident inside the MMMBT and more. The Downtown and Midtown tunnels were overwhelmed.
That Hampton Roads finds itself in this predicament is an indictment of a whole lot of folks, both locally and in Richmond. This wasn’t a major storm – Wednesday’s storm bypassed my neighborhood – but the results were horrible. I think I’m most bothered by the fact that the water was able to pool in the tunnel without anyone knowing for a while – what happened to the folks that used to walk through the tunnel? Where are the backups to the sophisticated alarm systems that don’t work when there is no electricity?
This should be a wake-up call for Hampton Roads. It is beyond time to get serious about our transportation mess.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
We ran into the mess yesterday as we were leaving town to visit my parents in the Valley (today is my dad’s birthday). We eventually found the one easy route out of town, across the Campostella Bridge and back through Berkley to the Portsmouth Tunnel, thence to US 460, which allowed us to practice taking the emergency evacuation route out of the city. It works very well if you can find a way to get to it.
Hey, that’s exactly the route I recommended to a friend to get to Harrisonburg! Good thing the tourists don’t know about it!