Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 12, 1995 TAG: 9507120048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"We got carpets pulled up in here, and we're getting ready to get carpets put back down," she said.
Buena Vista City Manager Richard Flora said the city estimated the carpet-yarn dyeing company lost finished goods worth $1 million.
In all, businesses in Buena Vista, Lexington and Rockbridge County had at least $26 million damage from floods, mudslides and storms that began June 22, officials said Tuesday. Of the total, $24 million was in Rockbridge County.
The figure comes from early estimates provided to state and federal authorities with hopes they would issue disaster declarations, which they did.
Grants and loans to individual business owners will be based on verified damage claims. Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been in the area inspecting damage.
How bad was it? In lost fence alone, Rockbridge County farmers and landowners are out $6.3 million.
Bob Claytor, Rockbridge County's fiscal services director and county spokesman on flood matters, said damage was widespread, but most businesses will survive. "Burlington [Industries] is the largest employer in the county, and they took major flood damage, and a lot of people are concerned about this. What's Burlington going to do here?'' Claytor said. "You have throughout the county little metropolitan areas that have most of their business affected," such as Glasgow, Rockbridge Baths and Goshen.
Burlington Industries' Glasgow carpet mill had to unbolt equipment, rip up buckled solid maple parquet flooring in production areas, and scrape glue off the concrete floor underneath, said Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Robert Skunda, who toured the plant last week.
Norfolk Southern Corp., which has a main line running through the area, "had a lot of their track bed destroyed," he said.
Unfortunately, Skunda said, assistance programs are primarily for the benefit of homeowners, rather than businesses.
Local leaders were pleased to see Skunda, Gov. George Allen and other officials arrive promptly on the scene, said Stu Litvin, executive director of the Rockbridge Area Economic Development Commission. "You could not ask for better cooperation," Litvin said.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.