ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two houses were destroyed and about 120 were damaged by flash flooding after a weekend of heavy rain in Southwest Virginia, state emergency officials said.
No one was injured in Monday's floods, said Jack Rowell, a state Department of Emergency Services official in Dante, where the two homes were destroyed.
A storm ``just sat over the area [Friday night and Saturday] and dumped and dumped and dumped,'' Rowell said. ``All the tiny tributaries that were trickles became torrents and poured into one creek.
``When it filled up, it started hauling boulders down the creek. It devastated one area of Dante.''
Dante is an old mining community of about 350 people, many of whom live in frame row houses built by mining companies decades ago. It is in Russell County, about 30 miles north of Bristol.
``We're still assessing the damage to figure out what needs to be done,'' Rowell said. Large containers have been brought in for trash and debris, and the Red Cross and other agencies were on the scene.
``The big thing right now is that the creek built up enough debris that sewer lines that went underneath the creek are backing up,'' Rowell said.
State health and environmental officials were dealing with that. The Virginia Department of Transportation was repairing roads and clearing them of debris.
About 70 families had to be evacuated from their homes, officials said, but most had returned or moved in with friends by Tuesday.
Alberta McDonald lost her back yard, and a few holes were knocked in her roof by hail, but she said she was lucky.
``The woman below me, the water got in her house,'' McDonald said. ``It didn't get in mine, because I had the creek bank built up to about 5 feet high. It took some of that back. I had a concrete wall built, too, to keep the creek out. It took the wall.''
John Botkins Sr. said he managed to keep water out of the living quarters in his house, but his basement was covered with mud.
``The hail was so bad that the ground was covered like snow,'' he said.
The cool, rainy weekend wreaked havoc of a different kind - financial - in Virginia Beach. James Ricketts, director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said it is too early to say how much tourism revenue the city lost, but he added: ``Compared to the last four or five Memorial Days, this wasn't a good one.''
Ricketts said hotels started the weekend with about 80 percent occupancy, which is about normal for a Memorial Day weekend, but a lot of people checked out early.
Colonial Williamsburg spokesman Jim Bradley said officials there ``were pleasantly surprised'' with the number of visitors until Monday, when the dreary weather seemed to keep tourists away.
``By noon Sunday, we were using the auxiliary parking lot at the visitor center, which generally would indicate we're having a pretty good day,'' he said.
The tourist attraction releases only annual visitation numbers, Bradley said.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Roy Phillips and his daughter-in-law, Jane, walkby CNBalong what is left of his front yard in Dante on Tuesday. The creek
took the lawn in a matter of minutes on Friday.