Even though it’s been more than a week since Hurricane Helene caused the New River to flood, people who were affected are still cleaning up the damage.
The New River rose to levels not seen in more than 80 years on September 28. Some people are still thinking about the day when the old New River just kept rising.
Antony Barnes, who runs River Junction Campground and Canoeing, said, “It’s hard to believe how fast the water rose.” “It went through another round once it reached a point where it was level”.
River Junction Campground is in Wythe County, near the place where Reed Creek meets the New River. It is between Allisonia and Barren Springs.
Barnes said, “When we added all that stuff from Wytheville to what we already had on the river, it really blew up.” “It began on Saturday night around 5 p.m. and went on until 7 p.m.” That’s how long it took to rise seven feet.
It rose 15 feet above the ground. It took away both gazebos, a playground, and the whole bathroom. We were lucky that no one was hurt, but four campers and a pickup truck were soaked. The mud was one of the worst things when the water went down.
It left behind two to four feet of mud. During our time in there, a machine found about 70 to 80 tons of sand. Anyway, it’s been slow… We might or might not be able to open before Thanksgiving.
More damage and deaths were caused by the floods further upstream from Pulaski County, but places miles downstream from the River Junction Campground were also badly hit.
About a mile downstream from the Claytor Lake dam, the Sportsman restaurant and campground were totally submerged by water. The same was true for the Radford Animal Shelter, which has been closed since the floodwaters rose to their highest point more than two weeks ago.
Anyone who owns land along the New River knows how much mud needs to be cleaned up before normal activities can start up again. But neither the mud nor the growing water levels were the main problem for people who live near Claytor Lake.
The biggest effect Hurricane Helene had on people who live near lakes was the huge amounts of possibly dangerous debris that sank to the lake’s surface.
As of Thursday, October 10, Claytor Lake’s public boat ramps are still closed. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources will ticket anyone riding a boat on the lake without a permit.
Lisa Walters, who works as the Environmental Coordinator for the Friends of Claytor Lake (FOCL), said, “Yes, the lake is still closed.” “I’m afraid that someone will go out there, hit a half-submerged grill tank, and use a prop to blow themselves up.
The Friends of Claytor Lake have been cleaning up the lake for years with a motorboat pushing a barge with a conveyor belt that moves trash into a big roll-off bin.
Walters said, “We’ve taken out a lot of tanks, like propane tanks, grill tanks, septic tanks, oil and gas tanks, and so on.” “Hazmat asked us to help with that.” Hazmat doesn’t have any big tools. FOCL knows how to use big tools on water better than anyone else.
The FOCL clean-up crew spent the first week after the flood collecting possibly dangerous items from the water’s surface. However, there were also valuable pieces of personal property in the debris field.
Walters, who lives on Claytor Lake, said, “Today a woman came in here from Allisonia.” “FOCL pulled in her pontoon and dock, and I’ve got it tied down here at our boathouse.” She started to cry.
The Coast Guard and I have been putting together a list of all the things we’ve found so that we can compare them. She looked and asked at the state park, and they called to see if we had it, which we did.
It hit the top of the Lighthouse Bridge and knocked it down. There’s a dent in the platform, but other than that, it’s not too badly damaged.
Claytor Lake has been cleaned by FOCL for about 30 years. Dean Jackson of Conrad Brothers Marina was one of the group’s founders.
“Like the flood that came down the New River this time, there was a flood in 1992 that brought a lot of trash to Peak Creek,” Jackson said. “But Peak Creek was impassable for a whole month.” “You could not get in or out.” In fact, that’s kind of what started FOCL.
Before that, there was a big washout at the old Allied Chemical Plant. Peak Creek turned red for a few days after doodle dust came down it. That made us take action.
In 2004, Jackson was one of a group of men who went to Portsmouth, Virginia, to buy a Navy scrap boat for the new group called Friends of Peak Creek. Their choice of boat to take back to Claytor Lake was booked, but it became open later.
The Navy gave FOCL the boat for free, but Virginia charged them $5,000 for a license. It was named the Miss Pulaski County after a while.
During the search for John F. Kennedy Jr.’s body after his plane crashed near Martha’s Vineyard in 1999, the Navy boat that would become Miss Pulaski County helped the USS Grasp. It was used to bring and take recovery tools like ropes and wires to and from the USS Grasp.
It’s interesting that Hung Cao, a candidate for the Virginia Senate, worked on the same recovery effort as a U.S. Navy diver.
Miss Pulaski County has been cleaning up after floods by pushing the boat and its tools around Claytor Lake for many years. This latest flood was no different. But during this most recent cleanup, the Miss Pulaski County broke down. FOCL is still looking for parts for the 40-year-old boat.
People who lived on the lake were lucky that FOCL had bought another push boat, which it used when Miss Pulaski County broke down. Last Thursday, Oct. 3, the second push boat, which was never given a name, hit some junk and broke its motor.
By Saturday, Oct. 5, Conrad Brothers Marina had fixed the prop, and the FOCL boat has been back in use ever since.
The FOCL barge cleanup crew started by getting rid of the piles of trash that had built up in Claytor Lake’s coves and bridges. They did this by finding as many gas tanks and stray boats as they could.