ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997              TAG: 9704230050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-5  EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: GRUNDY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

FLOOD-WEARY TOWN MAY JUST MOVE ITSELF AWAY FROM WATER PROJECT WOULD KNOCK DOWN GRUNDY'S CENTRAL BUILDINGS AND REBUILD THEM ACROSS THE RIVER

To solve funding problems, Grundy may combine the project with the widening of U.S. 460, the main highway through town.

The calendar, not the weatherman, warns residents of this Southwest Virginia coal town that the river is coming.

In the past 60 years, Grundy has been virtually destroyed three times by the fury of the Levisa Fork as it surged mercilessly beyond its banks and into the lives of the town's 1,309 residents and business owners.

It happened in 1937, 1957 and 1977.

Residents still tell stories about the damage, and many can point to spots on a building where the water peaked last time.

Now, some townspeople think the best way to avoid another devastating flood is to knock down buildings housing about two dozen businesses and rebuild them on about 13 acres on the opposite side of the river.

The federal government has drawn up a $115 million plan to do it and has ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to make it happen.

``The question is, do we want to pay more than $100 million now to relocate, or do we want to pay hundreds of millions later in flood damages?'' said Ron King, a lawyer who works in one of the buildings that would be razed. About half of the buildings in the row already are vacant.

The area to be demolished would be ruined anyway by another flood. A federal law enacted after the 1977 flood does not allow occupants of buildings in a flood zone to repair new damage. Instead, they must move.

``It's not `if' it floods again, it's `when' it floods again,'' said Town Manager Chuck Crabtree. ``And if the floods came and wiped that area out, the only thing we're going to have is dilapidated buildings.''

But Darlene Craft, who owns a women's clothing shop in the row, said rerouting or dredging the river seems a better solution.

``We're not for our town being torn down,'' she said.

One hurdle that must be overcome is funding. The federal government will pay 75 percent of the cost, but Grundy, with an annual budget of $900,000, can't come close to raising the difference.

The most likely solution is combining the flood-control project with the widening of U.S. 460, the main highway through the town. That federally mandated project also would require the razing of the businesses.

The cost of the widening would be $60 million to $100 million, and the corps says state money could count as the local contribution to the flood-control project, making the combined effort cheaper for everyone.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has been working with the town and the Corps of Engineers for years trying to devise a plan that combines both projects, spokeswoman Brenda Waters said.

Corps officials estimate the project will take about eight years to complete, and they said they hope to have an agreement with Grundy officials and VDOT to begin implementing it sometime in the fall.

Residents, meanwhile, just hope the 20-year major flood trend doesn't continue.

``I've seen buildings picked up off their foundations and moved,'' Crabtree said. ``I've seen people jump out of their trucks just as the trucks float away. I've seen trailers explode and disintegrate. I've seen friends drown. And for the past 18 years, I've seen a town slowly dying.''

LENGTH: Medium:   70 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ASSOCIATED PRESS. The placid (for the moment) Levisa 
          Fork of the Big Sandy River is the one that raises hob with downtown
          Grundy every 20 years.