ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609090045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TIMBERLAKE
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
THE HALF-FINISHED DAM held - and the community has regained the lake it lost last year when its old dam broke.
At first, it seemed like a bad case of deja vu if there ever was one.
Last year, after hours of heavy rains and flooding in Campbell County, Timberlake homeowners lost the lake that was the center of their community in a dam break that sent millions of gallons of water gushing downstream, drowning Bedford County motorist Doris Stanley and Timberlake volunteer fireman Carter Martin.
Friday, in almost as little time as the homeowners had lost their lake, they regained it. But that caused a whole new set of problems and a lot of familiar worries as neighbors wondered if their half-rebuilt dam could withstand heavy rains from Hurricane Fran.
The Timberlake Homeowners Assocation had recently begun the $840,000 reconstruction of the dam with contributions from neighbors. Contractors had estimated the dam would be rebuilt by October and filled within six months.
That estimate had to be revised when almost 7 inches of rain fell overnight Thursday, practically filling the dry lake bed and sending water sloshing over the top of the incomplete dam Friday morning.
Fortunately, this time the homeowners were ready. Thursday, on the advice of the dam engineers and contractors, the homeowners had a 20-foot trench dug in the middle of the dam, creating an emergency spillway.
Though the dam was underwater much of Friday morning, it held. By Friday afternoon, the water had receded and a brown waterfall gushed through the hole.
"I heard some guy on the radio this morning say that the dam had failed," homeowner Peter Hopkins said. "I don't know what he was smoking, but that's not the case. We're safe, the dam held, and it did what it was designed to do, despite the fact that it wasn't finished."
The water in the lake will have to be drained so work on the dam can be completed.
The dam, now about 12 to 15 feet high, will be almost 30 feet tall when completed. Friday morning, witnesses said, the dam was under up to 5 feet of water. Until about noon, homeowners weren't sure if the compacted red-clay dam would survive the onslaught.
"We didn't dodge a bullet, we dodged a cannonball," Timberlake Homeowners Association President Doug Washington said. "Without that trench, we wouldn't have made it."
Even though Timberlake caught the brunt of the storm, with trees having fallen on houses and power lines, homeowners and friends still hugged and rejoiced in their good fortune Friday. They also talked about how the half-completed dam probably saved downstream folk from worse flooding by holding the water inside.
At the same time, bystanders drove by to catch a glimpse of the furious waters rushing over the threatened dam and into swollen creeks downstream.
U.S. 460 at the Bedford County-Campbell County line was closed for much of the early morning as waters rose again over the Buffalo Creek bridge where Carter Martin lost his life last year trying to determine if motorists were trapped in submerged cars.
"I never thought this would be a tourist attraction," said Ann Jackson, who lives down the road from the bridge in Bedford County. "They ought to charge admission."
Dale Phelps, his wife Cindy, and their sons, Justin, 12, and Landon, 14, joined Jackson in watching the flooded creek rush by.
"This is like a yearly event now, isn't it?" Phelps said. "We've seen this creek flood a lot over the years, but nothing like it's been the last two years."
A lot of people were saying that in Timberlake, too. Some blame nearby construction for causing too much runoff into the lake basin.
"There is only one field with cows in this watershed, and everything else is being developed as fast as they can," Hopkins said. "If they turn the rest of the watershed into asphalt, it'll look like downtown Richmond before too long."
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. Timberlake subdivision residentsby CNBwatch as water gushes through a 20-foot trench cut in the dam in
anticipation of Friday's rain. 2. Jodie Grandstaff, 12, and Brandon
Dodd, 13, run on a flooded road with Lenny the dog in a Timberlake
neighborhood. color. Graphic: Map by staff. color.