|
20 Blocks of Downtown Richmond Condemned after Gaston
Well, we caught hell yesterday. Pictures at the link. EFLAbout 20 blocks of downtown Richmond were condemned after the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston battered central Virginia with torrential rain Monday, causing heavy flooding that sent cars floating down streets and trapped people in buildings. Five deaths were confirmed in the region, Gov. Mark R. Warner said Tuesday. "It's a remarkable blessing that more people weren't hurt," Warner said at a news conference. "The devastation to a lot of the businesses in Shockoe Bottom is overwhelming." A brick building of at least two stories collapsed in the historic, low-lying Shockoe Bottom area, and several dozen buildings had extensive water damage from floodwaters up to 10 feet, Mayor Rudolph McCollum said. Floodwaters overran about half of the historic neighborhood, including most of the restaurants in the nightclub district. Whole walls of buildings splintered, and bricks blew out of others. The city sheriff's office had to evacuate a juvenile detention center. More than 100 cars were waterlogged. Many had simply floated away _ some resting atop fire hydrants and other vehicles. City officials said the damage would easily be in the millions of dollars but said it was too early to provide an estimate. It was un-freaking-believeable! I spent 1-1/2 white-knuckled hours trying to get home yesterday evening, only to end up back at work, since every road home was flooded. I'm glad I've got an SUV; there were lots of regular cars flooded out all along the way. Later in the evening, I tried again by going west first (I live to the south of downtown, on the other side of the James River), then across one of the few bridges still open, then 6 ways 'round robin hood's barn to get within 1/2 mile of home, whereupon I found the main road to my house blocked by flood waters. I've lived here since 1978 and NEVER seen that road flood in that particular place. We had some serious water flowing last night! Had to backtrack and go way out of my way again to get to the one road to my house that wasn't under water at some point. (And I was damned grateful for that road - lots of people either couldn't get into or out of their neighborhoods, as the roads were cut off by flood waters in both directions.) This is truely a disaster for the area. Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-08-31 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=41989 |