Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The storms hurled hail, toppled trees, blocked roads, broke windows and caused minor flooding. The National Weather Service reported nickel-, dime- and quarter-size hail in southwest, Southside and central Virginia.
The storms downed trees in Bedford, Appomattox, Campbell, Nelson and Halifax counties. They blocked roads and flooded streets.
One storm hit Pulaski County particularly hard, blasting out a storefront window in Pulaski and ripping off a roof in Dublin. Steve Horton, owner of the Pulaski Appliance store, said the storm was intense for a few minutes, shooting hailstones, breaking branches and flailing signs before settling down to a drenching rain.
State transportation officials and farmers are looking at the flood damage left by two weeks of nearly steady rain. Rivers are running where roads used to be, and homeowners are stuck with unwanted waterfront views.
As officials tour the state assessing damage, some parts of Madison County are proving to have been changed dramatically, perhaps forever.
``There's places where you used to have a road beside a stream. Now you have a stream,'' said Dana Young, a conservation service engineer.
Three dozen agents from the Natural Resources Conservation Service - formerly the Soil Conservation Service - are in Madison, Rockbridge and other hard-hit counties this week, searching for sites where changes left by the flooding pose imminent danger.
The service's goal is to return the landscape to what it was before the devastation. In some cases, however, that might not be possible.
Meanwhile, artists and antique dealers are getting together and offering their wares for an auction to benefit the families of Virginia flood victims.
Norman Goodwin, a painter from Norfolk, said Wednesday that dozens of Tidewater painters, potters and antique dealers will donate to today's auction to benefit three Madison County families.
One of the families is that of Doris Frisbie, 64, killed when rocks and mud consumed her mountainside home with her inside. Frisbie was the wife of Goodwin's cousin, Herbert Frisbie. Doris Frisbie had been missing for five days when her body was found Saturday, about 200 yards from where the Frisbies' home once stood.
Goodwin said he decided to organize the auction when he heard that the Frisbies' insurance would not cover the damage.
by CNB