The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
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Staff Photo by Morris Stephenson:
The Pigg River was rolling over the old Rocky Mount power dam on Power Dam Road at mid-morning Friday. More dead trees and large debris had piled up on the edge of the dam, left in photo. Both the Pigg and Blackwater rivers were expected to continue to rise throughout the day before receding. |
Monday, June 8, 2009
By MORRIS STEPHENSON - Staff Writer
The impact of the worst rain storm to hit Franklin County in recent years was felt throughout the entire area Thursday night and Friday morning.
Although the Virginia Department of Transportation reported only one road closed Friday morning due to flooding, several secondary roads, including Callaway Road, were temporarily closed Thursday night because of high waters, VDOT officials said.
While the county experienced unseasonably high temperatures June 1-2 under sunny skies, the tide started to change Wednesday and broke loose on Thursday.
A fast moving storm hit Rocky Mount and the eastern part of the county around 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
A Rocky Mount resident on South Main Street, who had three cars heavily damaged by a large fallen tree, said his rain gauge caught 2 inches of moisture in about 30 to 45 minutes.
Less than a mile away on Scuffling Hill Road, where the National Weather Service instruments are located, only .70 of an inch fell during the same period.
The same NWS instruments caught a total of 2.90 inches in the 24-hour period between 7 a.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday.
Other residents of the county reported as much as 3.8 inches from the time the first rain started until early Friday morning.
Weather forecasters were kept busy issuing flash flood and tornado warnings Thursday afternoon and throughout the night.
The heavy rain that started about 5 p.m. Thursday and continued throughout the night.
As a result of the heavy downpours, many residents reported basements flooded to the extent that they had to be pumped out.
The early afternoon storm that hit the Rocky Mount area Thursday also carried heavy winds. Many trees were uprooted or broken off throughout town, the southeastern part of the county and the Smith Mountain Lake area.
A tornado was reported to have touched down west of Penhook but that was never verified. Local officials said they received no calls related to a tornado sighting or damage. |
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