Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 18, 1992 TAG: 9201180167
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: ELLISTON LENGTH: Medium
BOUCHER TO TOUR ELLISTON FLOOD AREA MONDAY
Ninth District Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers will tour flood damage along Brake Branch on Monday.Montgomery County Administrator Betty Thomas said Boucher set up the visit after she called him earlier this week to talk about flooding along the creek, which is a tributary of the South Fork of the Roanoke River.
Sarah Broadwater, Boucher's press spokeswoman, said the congressman was coming to Elliston to educate himself on the problem there. She could offer no specifics about what help Boucher might be in speeding up a proposed flood-control project.
A flood Jan. 3, when a storm dumped 6 to 7 inches of rain on the mountains above the creek, damaged several homes. Residents appealed to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors last Monday night for help.
The supervisors agreed to ask the Army to go ahead with a study of a flood-control project for the creek, which would involve cutting brush along the banks and removing debris from the channel.
If the project moves past the study phase, the county will have to chip in roughly $50,000 to help pay for easements and the cost of construction.
But the Army is not expected to begin clearing along the creek until 1993 or 1994 and residents fear that another flood in the meantime could wipe them out. The supervisors agreed to contact Boucher, as well as state lawmakers, to see if something can be done to speed up the work.
Nelson Starkey, whose wife, Mary Alice, spoke eloquently at the supervisors meeting, said the news that Boucher was coming is welcome.
"If it comes another flood, we're just gone, that's all," he said.
Starkey, 67, has lived along Brake Branch since he was 10. The retired landscaping contractor said he lost steel, cinder blocks and other material that was stored in his yard.
He's been through other floods, but "nothing like this one here," Starkey said. The floodwaters washed out a 7-foot section of the creek bank he had built up as a barrier to high water.
Thomas said she is not sure what Boucher can do to help but she is pleased he has shown an interest and responded so quickly.
Debbie Bandy, a homeowner along Brake Branch, said the Army's proposed project would not help her flooding problems. Bandy lives farther up the creek than the flood-control project would reach.
Bandy said the rampaging water, which collapsed her basement wall, came from improper drainage along Brake Road, not from the creek.
The state Transportation Department, in trying to correct a drainage problem along the road that showed up during the November 1985 flood, made the problem worse when it regraded the road, Bandy said.
Resident Highway Engineer Dan Brugh said, however, that the problem is not with the road drainage but with the debris-filled creek channel above the Bandys' home.
Water begins running down Brake Road above the point where state maintenance ends, Brugh said. He would be glad to consider enlarging drainage pipes that run under the road but no size of pipe would have handled the water running down the road during this month's flood, he said.
The Army project would extend roughly a third of a mile up the creek from U.S. 460, but Brugh said it should be extended above the Bandys' house or their problem won't be corrected. The Bandys live roughly two miles from the highway.
Those planning to join Monday's tour of the flood damage will meet Monday at 2:45 at the Elliston Post Office, Thomas said.