Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250260
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
1ST A BLIZZARD, AND NOW FLOODING
Heavy rainfall atop melting snow filled New River Valley streams to overflowing Tuesday night, closing roads and schools and prompting at least one dramatic rescue.Rescue personnel in Giles County put together a makeshift ferry to evacuate three people along Stony Creek, said Steve Davis, the county's deputy emergency services coordinator.
The early morning rescue was followed by another at a campground near Narrows, where rising waters from the New River had crept inside a camper.
Rainfall ranging between 1 and 4 inches also swamped a restaurant, forced evacuations in Pulaski, and closed dozens of roads in Montgomery, Pulaski and Giles counties.
All schools were closed Wednesday in Pulaski and Giles counties, and schools opened two hours late in Montgomery County. Radford and Floyd County schools opened on time.
The New River flooded Radford's Bisset Park and a parking area near the Dedmon Center at Radford University, said City Manager Robert Asbury. The city also had some wet basements, and Park Road was flooded, he said.
In Pulaski County, rescue workers evacuated more than 30 people because of flooding, most of them in and around the town of Pulaski, said Emergency Services Coordinator Stan Crigger.
The Beijeng Restaurant and Hotel in Pulaski was flooded, as were about 10 houses along Peak Creek, he said. Some elderly people were evacuated from an apartment complex in town.
Crigger said they were still tallying up the problems caused by the rain. "There's going to be some flood damage," he said.
Also in Pulaski, employees worked into the early morning hours Wednesday at Magnox Inc. on Commerce Street to keep the office building and processing plant free of floodwaters. "Those guys worked until about 2 a.m.," said Hi Nicely, operations manager for Magnox. He said the main damage was on the parking lot where surfaces had been torn by the placement of dikes.
Workers in Pulaski weren't the only ones who lost sleep over the storm. Highway workers and school officials in Montgomery County were out most of the night looking for trouble spots, officials said.
All in all, 28 roads in Montgomery County were closed by flooding early Wednesday, said Jerry Semones, fiscal assistant for the Christiansburg residency of the Virginia Department of Highways.
In addition, some 19 roads in Giles County and a number in Pulaski County were closed by rising water, as well. Most were passable again Wednesday afternoon, Semones said.
Semones blamed the flooding on melting snow topped with heavy rainfall. "The soil was just totally saturated, too," he said.
Floodwaters across Clubhouse Road in Montgomery County's Ellett Valley were 3 feet deep at 2 a.m. Wednesday, said Larry Schoff of Montgomery County Schools.
Schoff said some bus route adjustments, and bus drivers who communicated with each other on two-way radios, got Montgomery County kids to school despite the flooding.
Schoff said he expected no problems today - "Unless the good Lord has another surprise in store for us tonight."
The National Weather Service forecast included a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Wednesday night and a 30 percent chance of more showers today. Highway workers were planning to patrol trouble spots Wednesday night in case of more flooding, said Semones of the highway department.
The New River was expected to crest late Wednesday afternoon some three feet above flood level at Glen Lyn in Giles County. The river crested four feet above flood stage at Radford around noon, said officials with Appalachian Power Co.
Giles County rescue workers got a chilly taste of the floodwaters early Wednesday when they were called out to rescue several people trapped by the rising waters of Stony Creek.
The creek, which runs through national forest land along Virginia 635, had surrounded several trailers beside the road in the interior section of the county, said Davis, the county's deputy emergency services coordinator.
Rescue workers rigged a line between a vehicle and a pine tree, then hooked up a boat to the line so that it could cross the water safely, Davis said. He said the arrangement was much like an old fashioned ferry.
"The water was so cold, it was like it was coming off a glacier," Davis said. "I would like to commend all my folks for the job they did last night."
He said rescue workers also had to wake up the occupants of a camper near Narrows, who were unaware the water had risen several feet into their camper underneath their bunks.
Flooding also was reported along Wolf Creek and in Eggleston in Giles County, and in Allisonia in Pulaski County. Close to 1.5 inches of rain fell in Blacksburg between 3:15 p.m. Tuesday and 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department. Ironto got 2.8 inches; Brush Mountain 2.08. In Pulaski, some 2 inches of rain fell between 9 p.m. and midnight, said Crigger. Nearly four inches of rain fell in neighboring Carroll County within the same period, he said - much of which tumbled into the New River Valley.