ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609090067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Runoff from Hurricane Fran sent Virginia rivers and streams surging from their banks Saturday, stranding some people in their homes and forcing thousands to load up what they could and flee.
About 93,000 Virginia Power customers remained without electricity Saturday night, some with no prospect of regaining service until Tuesday. More than 600 roads were closed because of high water or downed power lines or trees.
Most of the damage was in Southside, central and northwestern Virginia. Officials said it would be several days before they assess the cost of the damage.
Tim Alderton and his wife, Babs, loaded their belongings into three pickup trucks and two vans as Shenandoah River floodwaters lapped at the foundation of their two-story brick house in Warren County. The water was rising 7 inches an hour.
``It's incredible. I didn't realize it would get this bad,'' Babs Alderton said.
Tim Alderton pointed past his inundated back yard to the rooftops barely poking out from houses on lower ground. ``All our neighbors back there are gone, and if they're not, they're dead,'' he said.
Several friends and relatives were helping the Aldertons with the evacuation. They faced the prospect of dodging trees and power lines on a 10-mile gravel road that winds over Blue Mountain.
Gene Kimbel, 63, made the trip in his Jeep the night before.
``I love the peace and quiet and all the animals'' along the river, he said. But he added, ``At my age, I don't know if I can take this again.''
A few miles away near Front Royal, traffic was gridlocked for more than a mile along narrow U.S. 522 as gawkers - some carrying video cameras - left their cars to view the flooding South Fork of the Shenandoah River.
Pittsylvania County authorities pulled the body of a 60-year-old man from a creek Saturday morning. Sheriff's deputy Maj. Gary Goodson said John Raymond Perkins of Gretna had been missing since he left Friday morning to drive to Lynchburg for a doctor's appointment. His car was found in the creek, and his body was downstream.
In Rockingham County, as many as 10,000 people had fled their homes, said county emergency services director Bill O'Brien. Coast Guard helicopters plucked 22 people from their houses. None was in imminent danger.
The Elkton and Broadway business districts were flooded.
``This is a major disaster in the magnitude of the floods we had in 1985, which was termed as a storm of 500-year magnitude,'' O'Brien said. ``An awful lot of homes have been damaged or destroyed.''
The National Guard rescued stranded residents in 13 localities in Southside and Western Virginia by noon Saturday, a spokeswoman said. Coast Guard helicopters also were used in rescues in Page County.
Gov. George Allen and other politicians joined James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for a tour of some of the hardest hit areas. Allen said railroad tracks were ``strewn like spaghetti,'' and some bridges looked like they had been exploded with dynamite.
President Clinton declared Augusta, Halifax, Madison, Pittsylvania and Rockingham counties and the cities of Danville, Staunton, Harrisonburg and Waynesboro disaster areas. Residents of the localities are eligible for federal aid, including low-interest loans for damaged homes or businesses and cash grants for temporary housing and some repairs.
In Southside Virginia, flooding was severe but did not measure up to Friday's dire predictions.
The Dan River at Danville crested at 7 feet above flood stage - short of the National Weather Service's forecast of 11 to 12 feet above flood stage. The record crest on the Dan is 10 feet above flood stage in 1972, also after a hurricane.
A foot of water surrounded eight businesses in a strip mall where the Dan and Sandy rivers join.
``If this had crested where they said it would, it would have been all over for these stores,'' said Bill Joyce, 46. ``I think God was looking after the people of Danville.''
A half-mile-long business section just outside South Boston was flooded, and 6 feet of water covered U.S. 501. Fifteen businesses were underwater and 40 more were isolated by flooding. About 15 houses also were flooded.
A man in a motorized rubber raft tried to order a pizza at a new but unwanted ``boat-thru'' at Ziggy's Restaurant, which was surrounded by a foot of water. But the restaurant was closed as its owners hauled away the contents in anticipation of another foot of water.
Halifax County Administrator Dan Sleeper called the flooding ``the worst in memory.''
The county's water treatment plant was shut down after being partially submerged in floodwaters. Residents were asked to ration water because tanks supplying drinking water will last only through the weekend.
The storm's fatality total in Virginia remained one: Thelma Botkin, 53, died Friday when she apparently tried to cross a flood-swollen creek in Highland County in an all-terrain vehicle.
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. AP A resident of Elkton walks along his roofby CNBSaturday as he assesses the damage to his home.
2. AP Onlookers in Broadway (above) survey damage from floodwaters
caused by the remnants of Hurricane Fran.
3. Work crews (left) begin filling in the washed-out area around a
bridge in Broadway. KEYWORDS: FATALITY