Photo by lovedc.

What a week, eh, Washington? It was fitting that it ended with an nearly-Biblical brand of storm, washing away the last few days so we can start fresh again this morning.

But in case you were detained in a windowless room between 7 and 8 p.m. yesterday, here’s what you missed: the skies threw a deluge upon the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region in one of the more impressively compressed storms we’ve seen in some time. (Considering that the last month or two has felt like monsoon season around these parts, that’s saying something.) Winds registering just under the Beltway speed limit, horizontal rain, and measurable hail battered the area. And while it was over almost just as quickly as it started, there were grave by-products: traffic was mangled in upper Northwest after a tree fell onto Connecticut Avenue near East-West Highway in Montgomery County, crushing a minivan with eight people inside. Two of the unfortunate individuals in that van were killed, including a child — and the whole area was a mess with live power lines on the ground and surrounding drivers wondering what to do.

The storm also hit other areas hard, including some sizable damage from downed trees in Glover Park. Here’s hoping that you’re not digging yourself out of a pool this morning and that you managed to find shelter before the worst of it all.

In other news this morning:

>> It’s another All Hands On Deck weekend for the Metropolitan Police Department.

>> The Rev. Anthony Motley (I-Ward 8) will be kick off his campaign for an at-large D.C. Council seat tomorrow in Southeast. Motley, who has close ties with Marion Barry, “has not decided whether he supports legalizing same-sex nuptials,” according to the Wire report. The two men he will be running against come November 2010, David Catania and Phil Mendelsohn, are the two most ardent supporters of same-sex marriage legislation on the Council. Gee whiz, I wonder what the race will be focused on?

>> The lesson? Always be courteous to the regulars at Fuddruckers in Alexandria; after all, you never know who’s a specialist in the black market conversion of semiautomatic weapons.