BUCHANAN, Va. – Many people across southwest Virginia experienced lots of rain tonight as storms rolled through Wednesday evening.
The rainfall caused many parts of Botetourt County to suffer high floodwaters on roadways, including Route 11 in front of Good Times.
Also in Buchanan, on Main Street in front of the Exxon gas station saw floods. Farther north in Arcadia, more roads were closed due to high water.
Two Botetourt County residents, Taylor Wheeling and Gavin Jernigan tried driving through floodwaters to get home but didn’t make it.
“We were at church down the street and I came down this road and was trying to go back through the tunnel 15 minutes ago no problems and I got about halfway through and my truck blew up,” said Wheeling.
Jernigan who lives in Buchanan says he is used to the road flooding when it rains.
“There’s a little creek on the other side of the thing so like when it floods and rains really bad all the water just piles up in that and flows through here and comes out the other side so it’s pretty normal here because it usually happens a lot when it rains so it’s not something new for us,” he said.
Officials urge people not to drive through high water. Instead, they say turn around and don’t drown.