ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609090039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ELLISTON
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
PAUL AND VICKY ABBOTT'S lawn was part of Brake Branch, running brown and frothy, like a giant Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink.
Would-be modern day cowboy Chris Lambert wasn't about to let a little fast-moving water stand between him and the rest of Brake Road Friday.
Lambert, 20, just lined his Geo Tracker on one side of the vigorous stream that was running across the two-lane Elliston road and gunned his way across.
The gamble was that the horsepower in Lambert's four-wheel-drive was stronger than the current cutting before him. It was.
"No problem," he said, puffing a Marlboro Light, safe on the other side.
"This four-wheel drive's the only thing that saved my butt," he said. "That and knowing how to drive it."
The reason for Lambert's all-terrain jaunt?
"My mom left the house this morning when it wasn't so bad, and I needed to take her some stuff."
The tropical storm formerly known as Hurricane Fran dumped between 2 and 9 inches of rain on Montgomery County late Thursday and early Friday. High water on the South Fork of the Roanoke River and its feeder streams stranded several people, forced temporary evacuations and closed roads in a heavily soaked stretch from Alleghany Springs to Elliston and Lafayette at the Roanoke County line.
Paul and Vicky Abbott live farther north up Brake Road from the scene of Lambert's ride.
Late Friday morning they were standing alongside Paul Abbott's Virginia Sprinkler truck watching what was left of their front lawn.
Less than 24 hours ago, a sizable stretch of green ran alongside the front of their mobile home. Friday morning, their lawn was a portion of Brake Branch, running brown and frothy, like someone was pouring out a giant Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink.
So far, Abbott had moored his fishing boat to his pickup, gathered their three dogs, set loose his dozen or so chickens so they could find higher ground and secured safe lodging for their two children.
"We done got them over at Granny's," he said. "On high ground."
Abbott said he's lived on or near the property for all of his 25 years. Friday's flooding, he said, was the worst he's seen.
Kenneth and Freda Epperly said they'd seen worse.
For 22 years, they've lived on Alleghany Spring Road - a few miles southeast of Brake Road - in a big white house perched on a knoll a safe distance from the South Fork of the Roanoke River.
From the roadside and underneath umbrellas, the Epperlys and their family watched as wood, barrels, tires, an orange cooler and a dog house (but no dog) floated down the swollen river.
"We've seen just about everything come down this river," he said.
The Epperlys and a dozen other passers-by had gathered alongside the river to watch Radford firefighters decide if they wanted to drop a boat, motor against the current and start evacuating about 50 residents of Alleghany Mobile Home Park who, along with three state troopers and three Montgomery County sheriff's deputies, were stranded at Alley's Country Store a few miles up the road.
The rescue attempt was aborted. But the stranded deputies and troopers spent most of their day at the store and nearby trailer park.
Trooper Tony Henderson said most of their time was spent checking on residents at the trailer park. At one point they rescued a resident using another resident's fishing boat.
But by 5 p.m., Henderson said he could see improvement. The waters had begun receding and, Henderson said, they expected to be out within the hour.
"The water's really coming down now," he said. "It's a lot lower than what it was earlier. I mean, it was terrible."
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON Staff Layers of asphalt lie stacked alongby CNBAlleghany Spring Road in Montgomery County after floodwaters turned
the road to mud. color.