Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995 TAG: 9506290094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GLASGOW LENGTH: Long
Fire Chief Richard Spangler spent most of Tuesday night keeping an eye on rain-swollen streams around this small Rockbridge County town.
At 3 a.m. Wednesday, he made another round. He checked the streams. Fine. He checked the James River. Fine.
He drove four miles back to the firehouse. By the time he got there, water was pouring under the door.
``Within 30 minutes, the Maury River was coming across the road,'' he said.
And Glasgow residents, victims of floods both in 1969 and 1985, were waging war against the elements again.
Spangler and other rescue workers rousted sleeping residents and started taking them to safety any way they could.
``We put them on the back of trucks, in the back seats and everywhere,'' Spangler said.
When the trucks could no longer do the job, the rescue squad got its boats out.
Some residents left on their own, but others sat on their porches and watched the river swell until the water was too swift and deep for them to escape without assistance, Spangler said.
The Maury, which normally meanders to converge with the nearby James, became a menacing bully, pushing its way across the cornfields that normally frame its boundaries.
The Maury more than doubled its width and became a 500-foot wide rolling fury that tossed cars, roads and dreams aside with equal indifference.
Spangler provided a lesson in river power during a ride to the edge of a bridge that crosses the Maury. As his truck idled there, the bridge vibrated as the river roared underneath.
Barrels and other debris could be seen floating in the rapids. Spangler said several cars had been washed away.
Still, the fire chief said it could have been worse.
``The James never got up,'' he said. ``If the James had got up, Glasgow would be underwater.''
As it was, a grocery store, a bank and a service station along the main drag had been submerged in 2 to 3 feet of water.
Uprooted fuel tanks were lying in the middle of Virginia 130, and the stench of diesel fuel filled the air. In early afternoon, most of the town's stores were abandoned until the water receded.
Some children used the lull in the storm to splash around in freshly made swimming holes, as parents bailed water out of their houses.
Billy Ould and his fiancee, Sheila McNeil, were fidgeting as they waited to get back into their house on Fitzlee Street. Earlier in the morning, they had gone into their house and moved their belongings to the upper floor.
Ould said that when he got out of work at the nearby Burlington Industries carpet mill at 6 a.m., he found a foot of water at the gate. The plant later was closed because of water seeping into the plant and power outages, spokesman Dick Windham said.
``Some areas are still dry but the bulk of the plant had water in it,'' Windham said Wednesday afternoon. The water's depth, he said, was ``in inches.''
The company planned to call back some of its 1,200 employees starting this morning to clean the plant. Officials didn't know if they would restart the mill before an eight-day holiday break scheduled to begin Saturday.
Officials did not suspect major damage, but shipments were delayed.
Water was cascading down from the mountains, forming small streams in streets and through people's yards.
Jonathan Lewis, 16, was at home with his family on Pocahontas Street when water started surrounding their house.
``It was rushing through the yard,'' he said. ``I never saw it like that.''
Lewis' family drove their car up to the graveyard and watched attentively as the river rose. When the water receded, the family returned home to a glaze of fresh mud throughout the house.
``The mud was everywhere,'' Jonathan said. ``Anything that was on the floor got ruined.''
Neighbors were busy Wednesday afternoon pulling mud-laden cars from the floodwaters. Others simply passed the time playing with floating toys on their front lawns.
Some residents fumed over what they perceived as the cause of the flood.
Freddie Plogger, who was flooded out of his home on Gordon Street, said he believed timber cutting and house building on the mountains helped create the flooding.
``They're taking our trees. That almighty dollar. There's nothing to hold back the water. They're taking all the natural paths of water away.''
``It was running down Lone Jack Road like a river,'' Everett Dixon, 75, said of the floodwater. ``I have never seen water like that down here.''
Tony Strawbridge, who lives on Catawba Street, agreed that mountain runoff was the problem.
``It really hasn't been the river,'' Strawbridge said. ``It's been the runoff. It's the heaviest I've seen in years. It's basically turning our yard into a little creekbed.''
Burwell Wingfield, chairman of the area's federal Soil and Water Conservation District, discounted clearcutting as a factor in the flood.
``I think it's been plain old odd weather,'' he said. ``What we are experiencing right now is water on top of saturated soil that doesn't have anywhere else to go.''
Hugo Bibbs, 38, said the flooding was the worst he'd ever seen.
``I've been here 38 years and ain't seen it like this before,'' he said. ``This has never happened before.''
Bibbs said he knew something was wrong when his sister called him at 6 a.m.
``She said, `I need you, the water is up on the front porch,''' he said.
Before he could get to her house, rescue workers arrived and rescued her.
Joyce Wyche said whatever the weather brings, she'd be ready. She'd been cooking for 10 children and as many adults.
``We got a ham. We got a turkey. We got pigs' feet. We got black-eyed peas, we got cabbage.''
She's also got five big beds ready for a crowd if more rain comes.
``They just said tonight might be the worst.''
Staff writers Mary Bishop, Mike Hudson, Keith Graham and Jeff Sturgeon contributed information to this story.
by CNB