ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM STAFF REPORTS
NOTE: Above
HURRICANE FRAN is knocking on our door, but experience has prepared us for the coming rains.
Corner of Ivy Street and Arbor Avenue Southeast-Michelle McGoy's cool demeanor, sipping a cup of coffee on her front-porch swing, belied the Ivy Street nurse's deep-running apprehension.
She couldn't help but look off toward the Roanoke River to her left, brown and hastened by several days of rain.
"When it gets to that cement pump house," she said, pointing to a spot halfway between the river and her house, "we start packing up." It's pretty much the only thing they can do.
But the packing has already started. Dana Cook sipped coffee with her, getting instructions on caring for the McGoys' dog. The car had a full tank of gas. Inside, already stacked on a table and ready to go, were the McGoys' important documents - deeds, bills, the flood insurance policy.
She and her husband and twin sons will stay in a trailer at her sister's house if the weather demands. All night, they will get up and make "river runs" - drives to check the rise of the river on familiar landmarks.
Roanoke City Market-"It's just a sick feeling," Marie Lovell said, "knowing it is coming."
The store Lovell co-owns, The Gift Niche on the City Market, was virtually wiped out in the flood of 1985 when the Roanoke River found a channel into downtown via a Norfolk Southern rail bed.
The store is insured now, though Lovell will move collectibles, their recently received Christmas merchandise and other irreplaceable items to second-floor storage space.
But the biggest difference between this potential flood and what happened in 1985 is that Lovell and other market merchants are more than a little wiser.
At the Science Museum Shop in Center in the Square, Jennifer Hollingsworth-Austin was videotaping the store's merchandise - for insurance purposes - before manager Betsy Williams and her staff moved it to the second floor.
Bob Beard, who runs an antique shop, managed to find buyers for a few pieces so he wouldn't have to worry about them.
Most shop owners agreed that trying to keep the water out was futile.
At the Roanoke Weiner Stand, no one seemed concerned.
"I'm going to lock up the door at 7 o'clock and go home," a worker there said.
Salem Village Mobile Home Park-Bill Crowner has been lucky during past floods. In 1987 and 1992, Mason Creek crept only to the edge of his camper, which he parks in Salem Village, a mobile home park off Roanoke Boulevard that has a history of flooding. In 1985, a raging Roanoke River tossed the mobile homes like matchbox cars.
But Crowner has an advantage.
"I can pack up and leave in about 20 minutes," he said.
He and his wife, Marian, tour the country in their camper every summer and usually come back to Salem to stay the winter.
If the creek's waters get too close today, he'll truck it on up the hill to the Salem Civic Center parking lot, which has been designated as the valley's emergency shelter.
* * *
Tammy Fuller's mobile home rests just a few feet from Mason Creek. Hers is one of the few trailers still that close to the creek. She's been in Salem Village for 61/2 years. High water has flowed under her trailer about five times, she said.
On Thursday, her brother and a friend were helping take off the skirting around her mobile home so floodwaters couldn't wash it away. Fuller was packing some of her belongings and probably will stay with her mother until the storm passes.
* * *
Opal Roles weeded her lawn Thursday of ground ivy that she says terrorizes her neatly manicured grass and flower garden. But she also was praying that the Roanoke River would keep away from her East Riverside Drive home in Salem. The 82-year-old has been through the floods of '85, '92 and all those in between. And her basement has flooded most of those times. She planned to just wait this one out like she has all the others.
* * *
The management at the Willow River apartment complex between Virginia 419 and Apperson Drive in Salem said Thursday there was nothing they could do but wait. Since Roanoke River waters flooded their lower-level apartments in 1992, an earthen dike has been built up and the city of Salem dug out some of the river bed to ease flooding impact.
Orange Avenue Northeast-Vic Thomas had the television at E.J. Thomas Market in Northeast Roanoke tuned to The Weather Channel at lunchtime Thursday.
Thomas' store was demolished by raging Tinker Creek on November 4, 1985. He and several customers were rescued from the roof of the store by helicopter, seconds before floodwaters swallowed it.
Thomas spent $200,000 to build a new store - $21,000 of it just to raise the site 29 inches. He had no flood insurance in 1985 - but he does now, he said.
For that reason, most of Thomas' interest in Hurricane Fran on Thursday was focused on the damage it could do to the 22-foot pontoon boat he keeps at Smith Mountain Lake.
* * *
At least once a year, when Tinker Creek spills over its banks, the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is forced to evacuate its flood-prone shelter.
And each time, it scrambles to find temporary homes for hundreds of animals.
Doug Loomer of Roanoke County heard an appeal for help on his car radio and came to the shelter to sign up. Loomer said his family has been considering getting a dog and volunteering was a way to find out if the family was ready for a pet.
"The good part about this is people generally keep them," said Diane Farren, shelter supervisor.
Thursday's flood preparations "make me even more determined to see that we have a new shelter," said Al Alexander, the shelter director.
Hollins College-College officials monitored the weather all day Thursday and issued an advisory over the campus telephone message system, alerting students, faculty and staff of conditions.
On November 4, 1985, heavy rains turned peaceful Carvins Creek into a raging torrent. The west side of the campus was under deep water and the science building's basement was flooded almost to the ceiling, trapping a telephone company worker - who miraculously survived.
The college safeguarded itself from future flooding by doing some regrading, shifting some small hills and installing floodgates, Linda Steele, director of college relations, said Thursday.
Garden City Southeast-Garnand Branch is a puny creek - a narrow stream littered with rocks, a mere trickle among Roanoke Valley waterways.
But a creek is known by its banks, not its everyday flow. Garnand's banks extend about 6 feet on either side of its dribbling bed.
Last year and many other times, Muriel Reynolds has watched this Garden City tadpole turn into a whale of a stream. It has peeled the blacktop off the bridge on her street, Thomason Road Southeast. Outbuildings have been flung downstream like fried-chicken boxes.
The city has applied for a federal grant to reduce flooding in Garden City by shoring up some homes and buying and demolishing others.
"Personally," Reynolds said, "I don't see why the city has to apply for federal money for a local problem that's been ignored for 40 years."
Peters Creek Northwest-Ruby Edwards sat in her armchair Thursday afternoon, soap opera blaring at her right ear, big pocketbook covering her lap, and shrugged her usual shrug about yet another possible flood.
"Ain't nothing I can do," she says after going through at least 11 floods.
The city has widened Peters Creek in places and cleared debris, but Edwards hasn't noticed much difference on her dead end of Meadowbrook Road Northwest.
"It came in my basement yesterday," Edwards, 70, said of Wednesday's heavy rains.
"I'm just going to ask the good Lord to help me," she said. "That's all I can do."
West End-On the edge of the Roanoke River near Memorial Bridge, some residents of Hannah Mobile Court were clearing out of their trailers Thursday night.
"I'll probably be leaving sometime tonight," said Donna Divers Thursday afternoon. "I don't know about my furniture. I don't have any place to store it."
These stories were contributed by Matt Chittum, S.D. Harrington, Mary Bishop, Dan Casey, Leslie Taylor and Betty Hayden Snider.
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Bill Crowner of Salem Village appliesby CNBcaulking to his roof where there is a small leak. Crowner will be
able to move his mobile trailer within 20 minutes if water starts
rising too high. color. Graphic. 1. Bracing for the water. 2.
Hurricane Fran at a glance. color. KEYWORDS: MGR (2).