Posted on 07/13/2022 11:33:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Over 40 people are unaccounted for and more than 100 homes have been damaged or destroyed after devastating floods ripped through western Virginia on Wednesday, officials said.
Torrential rain, which began on Tuesday and lasted through early Wednesday morning, caused flash flooding in Buchanan County, as well as widespread power outages and damages to roads and other infrastructure, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said.
The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office said in a Wednesday afternoon statement that 44 people, including children, in the Whitewood area were “unaccounted for” after their loved ones were unable to immediately get into contact with them.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
People in that county tend to build between 2 hills where water runs down to a river/creek from two sides.
Looks like nature doesn’t care about us, doesn’t it?
Humans tend to project thoughts and emotions on things. We project intelligence on animals and progressives all the time.
Nmmber of people ‘missing’ has dropped from 44 to 17 as people check in...
I've rafted the Colorado thru Marble canyon a morning after some evening rain.
Muddy waterfalls leaping from cliffs hundreds of feet high are quite an amazing things to see.
Any local news is now immediate national news, particularly if the news is sensational. It seems worse now than it used to because we hear more horror stories that once did, and now should, remain local.
For the record, Buchanan County Virginia includes the town of Grundy. Grundy is repeatedly subject to flooding.
In fact, the mountainside across the river was moved and a large flat place created. the Town was moved across the river to the flat place and out of harm’s way, above the flood plain elevation.
Grundy is SW Virginia coal country and was likely harmed severely by Obama’s war on coal
And flood plains don't just "happen," they are where they are for a reason.
Yes...my son noted that there were no warnings that normally occur when your phone blows up with that annoying buzzing noise. We picked the perfectly bad time to make a 7/11 run and almost died!
Folks might want to think about getting a NOAA weather radio...
Notifications on ours tend to be more timely than on our cell phones.
https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/
There is man made climate change.
But it has zero to-do with carbon, cars , industry, power generation, or cow farts .
Droughts and floods are created.
Multiple layers of bait and switch.
I remember Camille only too well.
That storm laid our corn crop on the ground. When a corn stalk is laid down by wind or rain it’s done, doesn’t stand back up. All we could do with it was let the cattle in to graze it.
The tobacco was looking good until Camille tore it up. Wasn’t enough left to salvage to pay for itself.
Then there were the fences torn down by the flood waters. These were the types of fences other farmers wished they had. Fenceposts sunk 5-6 feet into the ground and a strand of barbed wire every 6 inches. We salvaged some fenceposts but most of the barbed wire had to be replaced.
Then there was the damage to the buildings. Not one building that didn’t need a roof by the time Camille was done.
At least we didn’t lose any cattle. My grandfather had had a hunch so we moved all the cattle to high ground before Camille got here.
We surveyed the damage afterwards and thanked God that it wasn’t worse. Then we had a sit down to figure things out. It was decided that both my parents would get jobs and I would stay out of school for a year to work the farm while they worked their jobs.
The best laid plans of mice and men, I never got to go back to school.
Some neighbors lost a few head but in Amherst and Nelson counties some farms were completely wiped out. One man lost his cattle, his crops and two barns and some equipment.
Of the 259 people killed by Camille, 153 of those were in Virginia.
There is a historical sign on a highway in Nelson county where a bus loaded with children was swept off the highway and down the mountain. No survivors.
Camille was the bitch that ruined a lot of lives.
Why are they called flood plains?
In Appalachia many small valleys are only wide enough for a creek, road, a railroad spur, and a row of houses. These narrow valleys dramatically concentrate the risk of flash floods. In southwestern VA, you only see farms on the top of the mountain ridges. Just no room for fields in the valleys. Of course the small towns were usually built in the valley near the rail line and roads. Because of this historic development pattern, small towns can be almost totally washed out by flash floods.
They were 17 at the time so they seemed fine. I think we were all amazed at how well the people living there were dealing with it - helping each other, etc. And their generally good attitudes in spite of what they had lost.
There were a couple of girls about their age that were sorting supplies and they took a break from their duties and were excited to show our girls around the church, the big “garage” that also had their youth group room, etc.
A disaster like that sure brings out the best in a lot of folks. Glad your girls were OK.
Well, flood plains or flood zones are kinda self-explanatory to me.
Don’t know the etymology.
If we would only ban Dihydrogen monoxide....
I grew up one county south in Amherst and I was a toddler in 1969 when Camille hit. I don’t remember anything about it but I heard stories from my parents of the constant stream of National Guard helicopters flying in and out of the junior high school next to us, heading up to the hard-hit areas in Nelson County 20 miles north. Forty years later you could, if you knew where to look, still see the scars on some hills from the mudslides. It was a freak weather occurrence like no one had ever seen and will probably never see again. But it rained hard enough to stall cars. Not from driving through standing water. Just from the rain in the air.
}:-)4
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