ROANOKE, Va. – From the New River Valley to the Roanoke Valley and beyond, emergency crews are preparing for the impacts of Hurricane Ian here at home.
The Virginia National Guard is staging 60 soldiers and airmen at locations across Virginia, including Abingdon, Roanoke, Richmond and Virginia Beach.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also deployed crews to the Commonwealth.
“There’s been a lot of flooding in the southwestern half of the state. So based on those impacts, we wanted to be prepositioned for that,” said FEMA Region 3 Incident Management Assistance Team Leader Jason Burroughs.
Pulaski County Emergency Management Coordinator Brad Wright warned of heavy winds and potential flash flooding.
“It can flood fairly easy, even with just thunderstorms, because of poor drainage issues within the town,” said Wright.
Wythe County Emergency Management Coordinator James McCabe released a statement to 10 News that read, in part: “At this time we are monitoring the hurricane’s track to determine what impacts it may have on Wythe County. Wythe County does have a few areas of concern for flooding especially when we get a large amount of rain in a short time.”
In Roanoke County, swift water rescue crews are on standby.
Back in 2018, the remnants of Hurricane Michael caused severe flooding in the Roanoke Valley. Then, Roanoke County didn’t have its own swift water rescue team.
After the devastation of that storm, the county formed its own.
“I think, always, our concern, kind of, in this area is flooding,” said Brian Clingenpeel, the community outreach coordinator for Roanoke County Fire & Rescue. “We will have an extra boat crew on hand. We’re also up-staffing a couple of brush trucks to have available for, kind of, as saw crews to help if emergency responders need to get through roads where maybe there are downed trees.”
Their message to families riding out the storm is to be prepared, pay attention to weather alerts and warnings, and if you have to be out on the roads, remember the saying, “Turn around, don’t drown.”