ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601220033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: LAFAYETTE
SOURCE: ROBERT |FREIS STAFF WRITER
FLOOD WATERS block the only way in and out of Lafayette. Residents are eager for completion of a more water-resistant road.
Residents of this village found themselves temporarily stranded Friday as the nearby Roanoke River flooded their only access road.
"We'll just stay put until it goes down," Don Apgar said. "It's always been like this."
Commuters and school buses got out before the water overflowed Lafayette Road this morning. After that point, only four-wheel drive vehicles could use the road until the water receded late in the afternoon.
"I turned around and came back," said Theresa Wilhide. "I saw some cars and trucks driving through, but I wasn't going to attempt it."
Folks got their morning paper but not their mail. "If we had a boat, we could deliver it," Elliston Postmaster Bob Christian said.
Fortunately, there were no emergencies. The water didn't get high enough to force residents of trailers, who live near the river, to evacuate. Some school children got back home by walking cross-country from U.S. 460.
But there's no assurance that the waters won't rise again, if not today, then sometime in the future. That's why many people in Lafayette are hoping for spring with a bit more fervor than the rest of us.
Spring is when construction is scheduled to begin on a new, higher road that will create another way out of town.
With favorable weather, the new, .7-mile, $300,000 road should be finished by year's end, said Dan Brugh, resident state Transportation Department engineer. It's designed to extend Virginia 740 out to the main highway.
The new road generated some controversy last September. A delegation of Lafayette residents told the county Board of Supervisors of objections to the new road's design, fearing it would create more noise and traffic and would be unsafe for children.
Others were upset because they said they weren't informed about plans for the road. However, some discussion and design modifications smoothed those waters.
Wilhide, who signed a petition against the new road, took a look at flooded Lafayette Road Friday morning. "I said to myself, 'Emergency road? I can see having another way in and out.'"
She would prefer that the new road - which will run near her house - be built only for emergency access and be chained off when not in use.
Yet she, like other Lafayette residents, believes even a less-than-perfect new road will be better than living at the mercy of the Roanoke River.
Meanwhile, until the road is completed, residents will cope. "We're getting along pretty good," Sallie Smith said. "We're used to it."
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB