Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 10, 1995 TAG: 9507100127
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUENA VISTA NOTE: ABOVE LENGTH: Long
As he cleared away mud and debris from his Forest Avenue home Thursday, Danny Slough expressed frustration at being a grizzled flood veteran at age 28.
``It's getting to be a bad habit,'' said Slough, who had his first experience with flooding when he was 3 years old. ``I'm going to fix up the house and get the hell out of here.''
Like many Buena Vista and Rockbridge County residents, Slough is looking for reasons why their communities are hexed by floodwaters that seem to be appearing with greater frequency in recent years.
He believes siltation from mountain runoff is making streambeds more shallow and susceptible to flooding. The problem with floods in Buena Vista will not be resolved, he said, until the streambeds are dredged out.
It's becoming harder every year to invest time and money in property that inevitably will be destroyed by water, Slough said. He had no insurance to cover damage by recent flooding, but hoped federal assistance would help offset some of his losses.
He hoped his case was bolstered after a picture of his flooded house appeared on the front page of The Washington Post.
``I figured it would be on Clinton's desk,'' he said.
Slough said he has bought about $20,000 in materials to fix up the house where he lives with his aunt, Ila Green, 87.
Heavy rains June 28 sent a torrent of water rushing through the tiny, one-story house, leaving carpet ruined and subflooring soaked under a blanket of mud. It left behind brittle floor joists that likely will have to be replaced.
Thursday, Slough had placed fans under the house in an attempt to dry things out. Inside the house, only pictures on the walls remained intact. And they had been water-stained by previous floods.
Outside, about 6 inches of fresh mud covered what were once the driveway, yard and garden.
``It was a great garden,'' Slough said. ``I had 38 tomato plants. I'd already got about 200 tomatoes off them this year.''
The mud and the flood were unimpressed. What were once healthy plants appeared as only stick figures frozen in place by a veneer of silt.
Next door, Archie and Virginia Tyree were feeling some of the same frustrations.
``We got so much mud this time,'' said Archie Tyree, who has cleaned up after seven floods. ``We're looking. We're looking for a house on a knoll somewhere.''
Inside the Tyree house, the hardwood floors had buckled under the weight and rush of water. Kitchen cabinets were warped.
A dehumidifier was running constantly, working against the steamy residue of floodwater.
``You feel like crying, but you know it isn't going to help,'' said Archie Tyree, 74. ``You just got to laugh to get through it.''
Gone was all of the couple's living room furniture. Their living room floor dipped and wavered at the point where it joined the kitchen. Out back, a utility building sat sideways - turned by the force of the water.
``Those 50-year floods are coming every three years now,'' Virginia Tyree said, only half jokingly.
For the next week, the couple will stay in a motel room provided by the Red Cross until they can finish cleaning up and repairing damage. Buena Vista and Glasgow in Rockbridge County were among Virginia communities declared federal disaster areas following the floods spawned by heavy rains on saturated ground.
Down in Glasgow, Samuel Hunter, 77, was still reeling from his brush with a flood.
After all, Pocahantas Street had never flooded in the 35 years he has lived there.
``We just figured that the water would never get up here,'' he said.
But as mountain water rushed around his house, he and his wife, Alberta, still weak from a bout with cancer, were forced to wade to safety through waist-deep water.
``It's just beginning to dawn on me what it was,'' he said.
With a new threat to consider, Hunter said he didn't feel as secure in his home.
``You think now, every time they call for rain, you better be packing up and getting ready to go,'' he said.
Fortunately, the flood didn't destroy pictures and other mementos the couple had in their house. It did ruin a car and a couple of lawn mowers and tools that Hunter kept in a shed in back of the house.
Around the neighborhood, a film of lime had been spread on the ground to keep down the stench of drying mud. The ground was still soggy.
Down the block from the Hunters' house, Moreland Diamond, 31, was able to mow her mother's yard for the first time since the flood. The flood pulled down insulation under the trailer, but did not come inside.
``Storms and rains didn't bother us much before,'' she said. ``We were under the impression that we wouldn't get it. I don't think I'll like rainstorms from here on out.''
At the rescue squad building, residents gathered to get tetanus shots furnished by the Red Cross. A sign at the firehouse advertised free lime and cleaning supplies.
And Snazzy Lewis reflected on being a flood victim for the first time. Lewis' house suffered about $50,000 worth of damage. The James Lees carpet manufacturing plant where he works won't start production again until this week.
``People all around here have had these problems, and I'd say, `I know how you feel,''' he said. ``Until you experience it, you don't know how they feel.''
Still, he said there was an up side to the whole flood experience.
``Things could have been worse,'' he said. ``No one lost their life. Praise the Lord for that.''
by CNB