Fort Washington ; delaware; florida; Heavy rain causes; sewer overflow ; More than 200 cars damaged in lot fire ; Aldrin skips Space Center gala amid feud ; with his children

Fort Washington

Heavy rain causes

sewer overflow

FORT WASHINGTON - Heavy rains have caused a sanitary sewer overflow at a pumping station in Fort Washington, Maryland.

The overflow happened Saturday at Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission's Broad Creek Wastewater Pumping Station. It lasted from 8:55 p.m. to 1:47 a.m.

WSSC says the station was fully operational, but the rainfall overwhelmed the station's pumping capacity. WSSC estimates the overflow at about 983,000 gallons of diluted wastewater.

Signs were posted in the area warning residents to avoid the vicinity of the pumping station.

WSSC says its water and wastewater systems are separate and that the overflow did not affect drinking water.

delaware

More than 200 cars damaged in lot fire

NEWPORT, Del. - A fire has damaged more than 200 cars at a storage lot in Newport, Delaware.

It happened Saturday night in the vehicle storage lot of Insurance Auto Auctions. Investigators have not put an estimate on the financial damage.

A state fire marshal spokesman says the blaze was reported shortly after 9 p.m. when a person driving through the area saw the flames.

Fire companies from around the area, including units from New Jersey, responded.

Many cars at the yard are stored in vertical racks as many as three high.

florida

Aldrin skips Space Center gala amid feud

with his children

CAPE CANAVERAL - Former NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin was noticeably absent from a gala kicking off a yearlong celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the first moon landing, even though his nonprofit space education foundation is a sponsor and he typically is the star attraction.

The black-tie Apollo Celebration Gala held under a Saturn V rocket at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday evening featured a panel discussion by astronauts, an awards ceremony and an auction of space memorabilia.

Hundreds of people attended the sold-out event, including British physicist Brian Cox, who presented Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson with the ShareSpace Foundation's Innovation award.

Branson, whose company is developing a new generation of commercial spacecraft, said in a recorded video that the Apollo missions influenced his generation.

"Space is still hard, really hard. It still really matters," Branson said. "There would be no Virgin Galactic, no Virgin Orbit and no spaceship company had it not been for Apollo astronauts and the thousands of talented people who made their mission possible."

Aldrin's expected absence comes just a month after he sued two of his adult children and a former business manager, accusing them of misusing his credit cards, transferring money from an account and slandering him by saying he has dementia.