ROANOKE, Va. – For Robin Haas, the topic of flooding hits very close to home.
“I mean everything the whole house was flooded from the back of it to the front, so they had to gut the house basically,” Haas said.
It was May of 2018 when Haas’s 98-year-old mother’s home flooded after heavy downpours.
Remnants of hurricanes Florence and Michael also moved through that fall, causing significant damage.
“The water coming just rushing through her house it was just, scary for her, she was just really nervous and scared, and everybody was rallying around her but there’s nothing any of us could have done because it flooded the entire house,” Haas said.
In the years since, the Roanoke City stormwater team has focused on preventive measures. They also want people to be prepared by knowing their flood risk. You can check by going to the City of Roanoke’s Real Estate Geographical Information System (GIS) website, which shows flood zones and more.
A preparedness kit and a plan are also key if the waters rise, and you need to evacuate.
“We always say it’s not a matter of if it floods, it’s when, so it could flood at any time, you know it could flood in the next couple weeks, or 10 years from now. So, we just want to be prepared anytime and not have to wait for ‘Well, we think it’s going to happen now,’” McKenzie Brocker, Water Quality Administrator at the stormwater utility in the City of Roanoke said.
Haas said it was a tragic time for her mother and their family, but she wants people to know how flooding can turn dangerous in a second.
“It looked like a fall, the falls, I know it was really sad, but it could happen to anyone,” Haas said.
You can sign up for Star City Alerts, an emergency notification system for the community, here.