Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 5, 1993 TAG: 9303050218
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ROANOKE BRACED; RAIN EASED
Nervous Western Virginia residents looked skyward Thursday as a steady rain swelled streams and raised the prospect of flooding.But by midafternoon, the National Weather Service was breathing a little easier as the Roanoke River began leveling off and small streams started inching back to normal levels.
Rainfall levels at the Roanoke Regional Airport showed the storm had dumped 2.8 inches of rain since Wednesday evening.
Some portions of Roanoke and Montgomery counties were harder hit, with gauges indicating more than 4 inches.
The heavy rainfall and the fact that the ground already was saturated from melting snow worried emergency services workers.
By midmorning, the Weather Service was predicting that the Roanoke River would crest at 14 feet - 4 feet above flood level - between 7 and 8 p.m. Thursday.
At 14 feet, city officials worried that portions of Victory Stadium might be under water. A phone bank set up across the hall from the city's emergency services offices kept businesses alerted to possible flooding.
As the intensity of precipitation dropped off by Thursday afternoon, the river level hovered around 11 feet, a foot over flood stage. It had crested by 4 p.m.
That was far below the 18.2-foot level in a flood last April. It was nearly 12 feet below the flood that ravaged the region in 1985.
The Weather Service predicted the James River would crest this morning at 20 to 21 feet around Buchanan, where the flood level is 17 feet. A few roads in Botetourt County were closed Thursday due to high water, a dispatcher said.
Forecasts for tonight were calling for only occasional scattered showers. The low front that funneled heavy rainfall into the region from the Southeast was expected to go north and west, dumping snow on portions of West Virginia.
"I don't think any area was hard hit" by flooding, said Harry McIntosh, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Roanoke. "Tinker Creek and its tributaries had some problems."
That's what concerned workers at the Roanoke SPCA as they scurried to find temporary homes for several dozen animals until rising waters subsided.
The SPCA put out an appeal via radio stations in the valley. Seventeen cats were taken to an animal hospital for safekeeping. That left a couple of dozen dogs in search of temporary homes.
Rushing waters were enough to make some Western Virginia school administrators nervous.
For example, Giles County schools closed at 1 p.m. after some creeks crested late in the morning.
The prospect of flooding caused a few school systems to remain closed for the day and some others to open late.
In both Roanoke and Salem, roads in traditionally flood-prone areas were closed.
State Police Sgt. John Wingo, based in Salem, said some low-lying secondary roads in the region were closed by high water. But he said the number of accidents seemed similar to other rainy days.
"We haven't had any accidents attributable to high water," he said.
Lt. Ramey Bower, who supervises the traffic division of the Roanoke Police Department, said there actually were fewer accidents in the city than on other rainy days.
In Salem, high water loosened a fire hydrant on Kessler Mill Road. The fire hydrant, mounted on an 8-inch waterline, blew loose, causing water pressure to drop in most of the eastern part of the city.
After locating the problem, city crews isolated the line, and water pressure was building again Thursday afternoon.
The Weather Service reported generally 2 to 4 inches of rain around the state, and damage from high winds near the coast. In Gloucester, a sudden gust blew a tree onto a car and killed the driver, schoolteacher Kready S. Brown, 28.
Staff writer Kathy Loan and Associated Press contributed to this story.