ROANOKE, Va. – After dealing with flooding, fallen trees and power outages, the Debby downpour is now over.
People all across the commonwealth got a taste of Tropical Storm Debby.
With flooding and rising river levels, Swift Water Rescue Teams came together to confront whatever conditions it brought in.
” There are other preparations that are done way in advance as far as swift water technicians who train who make sure equipment is together and making sure they got what they need to do their job,” Brian Clingenpeel, Community Outreach Coordinator of Roanoke County Fire & Rescue said.
Fire and EMS crews from Roanoke City, Roanoke County and Salem, go through extensive training days before the rain starts to fall.
“It’s hours and hours of training, days and weeks of training to do this,” Clingenpeel said.
Our regional team was stationed at the Berglund center, but they can travel to wherever they are needed, this time around one team headed to Floyd County to assist.
” Fortunately, I am not aware that anybody was used on any kind of swift rescue call, but that cooperation is there, should this happen again, we are not done with hurricane season,” Clingenpeel said.
Along with rescue preps comes street preps, clearing roads in the Star City is also crucial.
“Also, after the storm, like today. They are out hitting trouble spots, a lot of debris and gravel gets washed out because of the heavy rain so that’s what they are cleaning up today,” Maintenance Supervisor Jerrald Beheler said.
The Roanoke stormwater division also investing in the future, with millions of dollars in storm drain upgrades.
“Each year we remove about 3 million tons of sediment from our streets so in the last 10 years that’s 30 million pounds of sediment removed. So, the more we can do to keep that out of the drain system in the first place the better our systems will perform when we really need them to,” Ian Shaw, Roanoke city stormwater utility manager said.
Even with sunny skies, and lower water levels, that doesn’t mean it’s an opportunity for weekend fun because the threat remains.
” When the rivers are at flood stage that’s not necessarily the best time to do river activities, you don’t know what’s coming down the river. It’s going to bring a lot of debris with it,” Danville Fire Deputy Chief, Timothy Duffer said.