Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180119
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD NOTE: ABOVE LENGTH: Medium
The remains of tropical storm Beryl swept through the New River Valley this week, leaving more than 6,000 Appalachian Power Company customers without power and a flooded New River threatening a scenic park in Radford.
The National Weather Service issued a flood warning Wednesday afternoon for the New River through Galax, Radford, Glen Lyn and all points in between, and parts of the river are expected to crest by this afternoon.
Almost 50 summer campers at the Glen Lyn town park in rural Giles County near the West Virginia line will begin leaving camp as the river rises along the banks there.
"We've had this happen lots and lots of times," town manager Howard Spencer said. "We're used to it."
Although most of the rain had stopped by late Wednesday afternoon, runoff from mountains and streams will affect the New River for days, said Jeffrey Sites, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Charleston, W.Va.
"Most of the rain that fell Tuesday morning brought the river up, but beginning later Tuesday evening, up to 4 inches of rain brought it up to near flood level," he said.
Sites said flood warnings for rivers are not issued unless the rivers definitely will go above flood levels.
Donato Cacciapaglia, of the National Weather Service station in Roanoke, said neither the Roanoke River nor the James River is expected to reach flood stage. He said those rivers' basins begin farther north, away from the heaviest rainfall.
In Radford, the New River is expected to crest at 1 p.m. today at 23 feet, a full 9 feet above flood level - the highest the river has reached since July 1905. Parts of Bisset Park will be flooded, as well as the Bisset Park pool, but the chance that evacuations will be needed are slim, said Calvin Whitt, the city's emergency coordinator.
"According to [the National Weather Service], it will be the granddaddy of them all," Whitt said Wednesday. "We're just taking it one stage at a time."
Wednesday evening, emergency-service planners began notifying residents living near the river of the chance of flooding. Six feet of water was let out of the dam at Claytor Lake to help alleviate any flooding there.
"We really shouldn't need to evacuate anybody, but that's speculation," Whitt said.
In Galax, the river is already past flood stage at 9 feet and was expected to crest at 16 feet at 1 a.m. today. Glen Lyn should crest at 15 feet by Friday morning. Flood stage for that section of the river is 6 feet.
There were scattered power outages throughout Southwest Virginia on Wednesday. Most of the outages - 3,500 customers in Blacksburg, and 2,200 customers in Floyd County - were caused by a failed breaker.
In the Carroll County community of Cana, wind downed a large tree, and about 500 customers lost power for more than three hours.
Apco spokeswoman Glenda Wohlford said there were scattered outages throughout the eight-county area of Pulaski, Montgomery, Floyd, Carroll, Grayson, Bland, Wythe and Giles, and that most seemed to be "wind and weather-related."
Staff writer Rick Lindquist contributed to this story.
by CNB