Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 17, 1995 TAG: 9507170109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BIG MEADOWS LENGTH: Medium
``We're doing our part to discourage people from hiking some trails,'' said Anneliese Ring, trails supervisor for the 5,200-member Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. ``Everything is very unstable still. If you have more rain, you could have more slides.''
Because of an ever-tightening federal budget, work to repair other, less seriously damaged trails might be indefinitely delayed, park officials said.
``It could take a number of years before you ever turn a shovelful of dirt,'' said Ginny Rousseau, the park's Central District leader.
Rangers are still turning away hikers from some trails, and officials recommend that visitors call the park before coming to find out which trails are closed.
Tom Blount, supervisory ecologist for the park, characterized the flooding as a geologic event of the type that occurs once every 1,000 years, altering the face of the park for generations to come.
``I don't call this damage,'' he said. ``I call this change. This was a geologic event and an ecological opportunity.''
Park rangers and resource specialists have only begun to fully assess the storm's damage to the 300-square-mile park, having spent the days immediately following the floods trying to rescue stranded families, opening up washed-out roads and collecting food for flood victims.
But preliminary assessments of the park indicate serious damage in all three districts, Rousseau said.
In the South District, for instance, the North Fork Moormans River Road was hit by 15 landslides, and a 1,500-foot stretch of the road is completely gone.
In the Central District, streams that were once little more than brooks with the occasional shaded swimming hole are now giant gashes filled with overturned trees and boulders the size of Winnebagos.
``It was worse than I thought,'' said Chester Mikus, roads and grounds specialist in the Central District. ``I have never seen a river jump its course like that and not be able to get back on course.''
Trails at lower elevations in the park were especially hard hit, Rousseau and Mikus said. About 13 inches of rain fell on parts of the park over 36 hours, tearing stands of trees loose from the hillsides and sending them crashing down with massive rocks across the trails below.
Six trails remain closed: the Rose River Fire Road trail below the junction with the Dark Hollow trail, the Jones Mountain trail, the Lower Rapidan trail from both Criglersville and Graves Mill, the Staunton River trail, the Conway River Fire Road trail and the McDaniel Hollow trail.
The Staunton River trail is representative of the more seriously damaged trails: Rousseau, Mikus and Gubler searched for the trail Wednesday, but had a hard time finding it because the road to it had vanished. When they finally found it, they saw little more than a stretch of broken rocks, twisted trees and tons of silt and sand.
Rousseau said she doubts the Staunton River trail will ever be rebuilt.
``We have to answer several questions,'' Rousseau said. ``What are we going to restore? What are we going to say is closed permanently? What can we do with existing funding? What will need additional funding?
``A lot of the repair work is going to be predicated on volunteer help. There's no way the park has the resources to do it all.''
by CNB