Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995 TAG: 9506290048
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
Lewis and Lucy Eaton had some scary moments as they tried to leave their Sugar Run home on Virginia 663 to escape the flooding.
With the rains producing a mudslide and water building up in their yard, Lewis Eaton gave his wife time only to grab her pocketbook before the couple jumped in their car to seek a safer place. They couldn't get far, though, because another mudslide closer to Virginia 100 kept them trapped, forced to travel up and down the road until the storm abated.
The Eatons spent Wednesday surveying the damage around their house - including an uprooted mailbox - and assuring concerned friends who called that they were safe.
Neighbor Kathryn Brown spent Wednesday morning salvaging potatoes from her garden that was ravaged by the flooding.
But no one was seriously injured and no bridges were lost, Sheriff Larry Falls said midmorning Wednesday, as plucky citizens and county workers - even an inmate work crew - quickly went about clearing mud, water and debris from roadways and businesses. Even so, they kept a watchful eye on the sky and kept their ears to National Weather Service reports that called for a flood warning until 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The storm centered around downtown Pearisburg and the Staffordsville area off Virginia 100, with residents in Eggleston and Narrows reporting far less rain than neighbors just a few miles down the road.
Falls said traffic was being rerouted around the water-covered highway near Pete's Place on Virginia 100, with motorists traveling northbound in the south lane for about a mile. The destruction continued into town past the treasurer's office and the Holiday Motor Lodge.
Several trees were downed and a good-sized sinkhole developed just past the Pearisburg side of a bridge near Hoechst-Celanese.
"To my knowledge, no one got hurt or got trapped ... but it was scary there for a while," Falls said.
Residents coming to the treasurer's office to conduct business Wednesday morning were surprised to find a condemned sign on the building. Treasurer Rick Cook peered through the plate glass windows, pointing out the areas that received the most damage.
"It was just a river out here," said one county worker. Cook and another county employee pointed out a deep gully inside the courtyard that separates the county administration building from the treasurer and commissioner of revenue offices. Across the courtyard, doors to the Board of Supervisors meeting room and the county Health Department were pitched open as workers mopped up the last of the damage.
Water gushing over the sidewalk and down a stone wall there had caused the gully, about 5 feet at its widest.
When Cook got to his office Tuesday evening during the storm, he found 4 inches of water in the main office areas. The water left behind mud-sopped carpeting as it drained into the basement. Outside, a 2 1/2-foot watermark could be seen on a pillar leading into the basement, where costly computer equipment and tax tickets were stored.
"It's just a mess," Cook said. "The basement's a wreck."
Cook still owns the contracting business he had before he became treasurer 31/2 years ago.
"I offered assistance from my construction company, free of charge, to the county to be at their disposal," Cook said. "They're waiting on the insurance company, so I'm just temporarily taking care of the business at hand."
That business includes finding a way to ready Friday's payroll checks.
County officials declared a lcoal emergency late Wednesday afternoon. The treasurer and commissioner of revenue offices will reopen Wednesday, July 5.
"I've lived in this county 32 years and I've never seen nothing like it," Cook said.
Gene Dalton, chief photographer for the New River Valley bureau, contributed information for this story.
by CNB