ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
WITH THE GROUND SATURATED and rivers near flood stage, emergency planners worry about more flooding Friday and Saturday.
Wednesday's rain and flash flooding may have been just a sample of what is to come this weekend, with Hurricane Fran expected to drop 3 to 5 inches of rain on waterlogged Southwest Virginia.
"We are gearing up for major flooding," said Wanda Reed, coordinator of emergency medical services in Roanoke. "We're not saying that we're going to have that, but we certainly have to start planning."
With the ground saturated and rivers and streams swollen to near flood stage, Reed and other emergency planners worry that flooding Friday and Saturday could be more severe than what occurred Wednesday.
Those concerns are based on predictions of more heavy rain that could begin early Friday, as Hurricane Fran makes its way inland.
"With the ground being so saturated already, everything that we get is just going to run off," Reed said.
Although Wednesday's flooding was the product of an upper-level disturbance that pulled moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, weather forecasters predicted the next wave of rain will come from the coastal Carolinas.
On Wednesday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center predicted Fran would hit near Charleston, S.C., about midnight tonight, according to Steve Nogueira, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Blacksburg.
From there, the weakened hurricane is expected to dump rain through central North Carolina as the storm makes it way north into Southeast Kentucky and far Southwest Virginia.
"If that track pans out, it would bring an awful lot of heavy rain into Southwest Virginia," Nogueira said.
Although Hurricane Fran was still gaining strength off the coast Wednesday, with winds of about 115 mph, heavy rain is the only real danger Fran is expected to bring to the Roanoke area.
Wednesday's storm, which dumped nearly 2 inches in the Sugarloaf Mountain area of Roanoke County and nearly 9 inches in Pittsylvania County, were expected to give way to scattered showers today.
Reed suggests residents use today's respite to stock up on essentials and medication before the next heavy rainfall, which could begin about 3 or 4 a.m. Friday. And she warned residents in low-lying areas to keep an eye on streams and be ready to evacuate on short notice.
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