Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 28, 1995 TAG: 9506280033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CRIGLERSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Gov. George Allen declared a state of emergency for all but the eastern and southwestern tips of Virginia, and National Guard helicopters prepared to join aerial search and rescue efforts in central and Northern Virginia. Allen planned to visit affected areas today, a spokeswoman said.
A Coast Guard helicopter hoisted 10 families to safety along the Robinson River in Madison County, including two 11-year-old boys who were plucked from a tree.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Mike Thomas, a rescue swimmer on one of the helicopters called in for search and rescue duty in the area, said one of the boys was clinging precariously to a branch as water below gushed in the direction of a barbed-wire fence.
``I knew we had to get him on the first shot. Otherwise, he'd have been in the river and into that fence,'' said Thomas, who said he and his pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Bruce Jones, rescued a dozen people in about nine hours.
Three-year-old Alexis Orantes of Manassas was swept into Gooney Creek in a mountainous area of Warren County when she tried to flee with her grandparents from a motor home as water closed in around it. Firefighters rescued the grandparents, Roy and Virginia Smith of Manassas, from a tree they had climbed to avoid the water.
Maryland State Police helicopters and ground searchers using dogs trained to detect scents on water turned up no trace of the child along the creek and the Shenandoah River late Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities in Rappahannock County found the body of 43-year-old Kirk Davis, who was last seen about 6:30 a.m. walking away from his house. His house was along the Rush River, and his truck had been swept into the river.
A search team found Davis' body about 11/2 miles downriver from his house at midafternoon. He had suffered a head injury, but the cause of death was not immediately determined, said D.C. Knuepfer, Rappahannock County emergency services coordinator.
``You can design for this or plan for it all you want, but you can't harness the force of nature,'' said Robert Johannis, who helped fish two men out of a flooded truck in the Robinson River.
Twelve National Guard troops prepared to leave for Orange County from Richmond in two helicopters Tuesday night to aid in aerial search and rescue efforts.
About 10 miles south of Madison, the Rapidan River covered U.S. 29, closing the four-lane thoroughfare from both the north and south and cutting off access to Madison County on three sides.
Water also severed telephone lines, leaving Madison County residents unable to make long-distance calls.
The National Weather Service said 9.1 inches of rain fell in Gordonsville, about 20 miles northeast of Charlottesville, between 7 and 11 a.m. Tuesday. In Fluvanna County, where more than 3.5 inches of rain per hour fell during the morning, only about an inch fell during the afternoon, said National Weather Service meteorologist Gary Szatkowski in Washington.
In Madison, officials also kept a vigil on the White Oak Dam, which holds the town's drinking water reservoir. At Madison County High School, about 50 people whose homes were flooded sought food and a dry bed at a Red Cross shelter.
``Everyone is safe, but they're real scared,'' said Madison County Rescue Squad spokeswoman Polly Powell.
A pall of storm clouds was forecast to remain over much of Virginia for at least two days, and more heavy rainfall is likely, Szatkowski said.
In Louisa County, an engorged 60-acre lake on a golf course resort threatened to rupture an earthen dam. At one point, more than four feet of water spilled over the dam at the Shenandoah Crossings resort, witnesses said.
Flooding along the Robinson River in Madison County washed out a half-dozen small bridges, including a bridge and a small concrete dam at Banco. One small house was swept away in Rappahannock County, but no one was inside.
An elderly woman was saved from a pickup truck submerged up to the windshield, Thomas said. She was curled up in a fetal position, apparently incoherent from fear and fatigue, he said.
Helicopters also rescued several people in Criglersville, a town rendered accessible only by air after water washed a tree 30 feet tall and 10 feet wide at its base across the only road into town.
Water washing across Virginia 609 at Banco sliced through the pavement and moved it away.
``The water lifted up the asphalt like it was layer cake,'' said Mike Viar, a hydraulic engineer with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB