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Few Florence floods: But local area hit with power outages

It’s too bad Saturday’s UVA football game against Ohio University was moved to Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville—with little rain, the Cavs probably could have played at home. Photo by Jack Looney

Grocery store shelves in Charlottesville and Albemarle County were picked clean last week by people preparing for Hurricane Florence’s worst. But come this week, those cases of water, boxes of batteries, and jars of peanut butter had gone largely unneeded.

While a tornado left one person dead in Richmond, and significant flooding threatened folks in Nelson, Green, and Madison counties, the immediate local area was relatively unscathed.

“Florence could dump a foot of rain on already saturated ground,” predicted state climatologist Jerry Stenger before the hurricane, when Virginia was projected to be in its northeast quadrant. “We’re going to have trees down all over the place.”

Stenger was right. And wrong.

The majority of area rain fell Sunday, September 16, through Monday, September 17, and by Monday morning, the National Weather Service had issued a flood warning for the city and county. Local areas reported receiving between a half and two inches of rain, with minor flooding reported in Albemarle.

In the state, approximately 500 roads were temporarily closed, with eight of those in Albemarle, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Approximately 3,800 Dominion Energy customers in Charlottesville and Albemarle County were out of power from 10am Sunday, September 16, until Monday morning, when about 2,300 of those people had their electricity turned back on, according to Dominion spokesperson Daisy Pridgen. Remnants of Florence hit the local area the hardest around this period, and she says the outages were largely the result of trees falling on power lines.

At press time, the energy company’s interactive power outage map showed only 27 and 181 customers were still without electricity in Charlottesville and Albemarle, respectively.

The Virginia State Police are already offering tips for next time, such as dialing 511 before driving for the latest updates on road conditions and closures, and always using headlights while windshield wipers are activated—not only because you can see better and you become more visible to other traffic, but because that’s the law.

And perhaps the most important tip, and one you’ve likely heard before: Turn around, don’t drown.

More than half of all flood-related drownings occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state police add that it only takes 12 inches of rushing water to carry away a small car, and two feet of it can wash most vehicles down a roadway.

“It’s never safe to drive or walk into flood waters,” says VSP spokesperson Corinne Geller. “No matter how shallow you might think it is.”

Storm statistics

  • 1 death in Richmond
  • ½ to 2 inches of rain in Charlottesville
    and Albemarle
  • About 500 road closures across the state
  • Nearly 4,000 local power outages for Dominion Energy customers
  • $60 million authorized by Virginia
    Governor Ralph Northam to spend in response to Florence

*Numbers provided by the Virginia Department of Transportation, National Weather Service, and Aubrey Layne, the state secretary of finance

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Hurricane expert: Jerry Stenger’s Florence predictions

Jerry Stenger is always popular during natural disasters. Photo Fariss Samarrai

When there’s a weather disaster in the forecast, Jerry Stenger is on everyone’s speed dial. We didn’t catch up with the director of the State Climatology Office at UVA until yesterday afternoon, and even though Hurricane Florence has shifted south, here are his predictions for the storm—and tips on what to eat.

“For us, the big problem is the massive amount of rainfall and wind,” says Stenger. “Florence could dump a foot of rain on already saturated ground. We’re going to have trees down all over the place.”

That means that parts of the state—like here—could be without electricity “much like 2003 with Isabel, which caused a huge outage.” His mother, who lives in Richmond, was without power for two weeks, he says, an unpleasant situation experienced by many in Albemarle County.

“I fear there could be a prolonged period without power,” says Stenger, who notes that power company crews are going to be working from South Carolina first and then heading north.

The heavy rain can lead to flash flooding and urban flooding with backed up storm drains. “The storm is forecast to slow down as it hits landfall, which will exacerbate” the situation, he says.

Virginia will catch the northeast quadrant of the storm, which will start expanding once it hits land and pile the water up. “This is not good,” he says.

So what does a hurricane expert do to get ready for a monster storm?

“I bought these packages of Indian food that keep without refrigeration and don’t need to be heated up,” says Stenger.

And because he’s on a well, “I’m filling every container with water that I have.” Stenger is also filling gas cans, because with widespread electricity outages, service stations can’t pump gas.

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In brief: Category 4, $1 penalty, Foxfield continued and more

photo NASA

Florence and the rain machine

Charlottesville was relatively unscathed from last year’s big hurricanes: Harvey and Category 5s Irma and Maria. But as stock brokers often warn, past performance is not indicative of future results. And the warnings for Hurricane Florence, currently a Category 4 and still days away at press time, are catastrophic.

Governor Ralph Northam issued a state of emergency September 10, and ordered mandatory evacuations for low-lying areas of Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore. Governors of both North Carolina, which sits squarely in Florence’s current path, and South Carolina have also ordered coastal evacuations.

It’s the projected rainfall that has many nervous after heavy rains in May caused flash flooding and took the lives of two Albemarle residents. Charlottesville already is 12 inches above average, with over 41 inches of rain as of September 10, according to Weather Underground. At press time, the National Hurricane Center has Charlottesville mapped to receive 10 inches of rain from Florence.

More preliminary reports: Some bottled water shortages have already appeared, and expect gas prices to go up.

Quote of the week

“When you vote, you’ve got the power to make sure white nationalists don’t feel emboldened to march with their hoods off or their hoods on in Charlottesville in the middle of the day.”—Former President Barack Obama on the midterm campaign trail September 7 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

In brief

Two officers shot

Gunfire at Hardy Drive September 8 left three men wounded, including two officers who responded to reports of shots at 8:43pm, and Timothy Lamont Miles, 27, who was charged with attempted capital murder and felon with a gun. Miles, who is known to police, has a lengthy rap sheet that includes a history of brandishing firearms, burglary, multiple assaults, resisting arrest, and multiple other charges.

 

Paying the price

In February, a jury found Jeff Winder guilty of assaulting Jason Kessler at his August 13, 2017, press conference in front of City Hall. The alleged assaulter appealed the conviction, and was found guilty again last week, when a new jury fined him $1 for slugging the man who planned the Unite the Right rally. Afterward, an outpouring of people asked on social media if they could also punch Kessler for a buck.

‘Monumental change needed’

A new billboard in town, paid for by the Make It Right Project, supports anti-racist activists in their attempt to have Confederate statues removed. It’s neighbors with another East High Street signboard that glorifies “Stonewall” Jackson, and was paid for by the Virginia Flaggers.

Crozet train crash lawsuit

The father of Dennis “DJ” Eddy, who had been working for Time Disposal a short time when an Amtrak train slammed into the garbage truck in which he was a passenger and killed him, filed a $10 million lawsuit against CSX, which owns the track, and Buckingham Branch, which operates it. Multiple people have said there were frequent problems with the crossing arm.

CFA layoffs

CFA Institute, an international association for investment professionals that renovated the former Martha Jefferson Hospital and made it its headquarters in 2014, laid off 31 employees in Charlottesville and New York, according to NBC29. The employees received severance packages and were encouraged to apply for 50 open positions, many in Charlottesville.

 

The fight over Foxfield continues

Parties in a lawsuit over whether the Garth Road property that’s home to the Foxfield Races can be sold for development expected a judge to make a decision September 11.

At the hearing in Albemarle Circuit Court, more than a dozen horse racing fans had green stickers on their lapels that featured a cartoon fox and said, “Save Foxfield Races.”

Instead of reaching a decision, Judge Cheryl Higgins took motions under advisement. She asked for more evidence from attorneys defending the Foxfield Racing Association, which now owns the property and wants to sell it, and from those representing seven Albemarle residents with connections to the races who are fighting the potential sale.

The plaintiffs say the original landowner, Mariann S. de Tejada, said in her will that the land should remain intact in perpetuity for the races. The Foxfield Racing Association argues that de Tejada didn’t specifically state the creation of a trust for the property.

Higgins said she isn’t able to determine whether there’s a trust that would prevent the sale, and also suggested a settlement between the parties.

“Our objective is to protect the Foxfield Races—if not by a settlement, then by a continuation of the lawsuit,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Hurd said outside the courthouse. He also said he’s “happy to” dig up more evidence to prove an intended trust.