Youngkin on flood recovery: 'We are still seeing a desperate need for support'

“First is to make sure, if there are people who are still stranded, to know where they are, and the localities have been all over this in the 48 hours,” he said at a news conference from the Virginia Emergency Support Team headquarters in North Chesterfield.

Said Youngkin: “We are still seeing a desperate need for support.”

On Monday, the death toll from the storm passed 130 across multiple states, including 30 in the North Carolina county that includes Asheville. Officials there battled to get water, food and other supplies to the mountainous area.

The powerful weather system with torrential rains slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 storm late Thursday, downing trees, ripping off roofs and churning north through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee before causing rising floodwaters and mudslides. Monday marked the third day with widespread electricity and mobile service outages for a 600-mile zone.

The full impact of Helene won’t be known for weeks. In Virginia, some of the worst damage has been found in and around Damascus, a town of about 800 in Washington County on the Tennessee border.

On Friday, Allen Shope watched helplessly as water and debris flooded his auction house outside town. Shope said it went from raining one moment to ferocious flooding in an instant.

“There was a barn, a small barn went floating down there, hit the side of our building,” Shope said. “This is beyond devastating.”

Resident Corey Forrester, who has lived in the area since 2008, said the floodwaters swept away his deck.

“We really loved this deck, man. It went out over the water. It was about 12 feet,” Forrester said. “We’ll get it rebuilt, but it was like slow motion when it left, man.”

2 deaths reported in Virginia

At least 121 fatalities in six states have been attributed to the storm as of Monday. Officials said two people in Virginia died, including a woman killed when a barn and tree in Craig County were felled by strong winds.

Destruction also was reported in Pulaski and Giles counties along the New River. The Radford University baseball field was heavily damaged in the flooding.

President Joe Biden on Sunday approved an emergency declaration for Virginia, which allows the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in the flooded areas.

On Monday, the president said he expects he’ll ask Congress for additional funding.

“We know there’s more to do and we’ll continue to surge resources including food, water, communications, and lifesaving equipment,” Biden said.

Youngkin toured storm damage in Independence, Fries, Pembroke, Narrows, Bisset Park and other areas over the weekend.

The Virginia Department of Corrections also has dispatched staff members and supervised inmates and probationers to help with tree-cutting and debris removal.

One crew witnessed a large tree fall onto a person’s vehicle and were able to remove it. No one inside was injured, the Corrections Department said in a statement.

“We could not be prouder of our staff for how they rose to this great challenge, for how they continue to perform to safely operate the facility, and for how they are supporting the community relief efforts with a vigorous purpose and passion,” Rodney Younce, the warden of the River North Correctional Center, a men’s prison in Grayson County, said in the statement released by the Corrections Department. “This is vital work, especially because these are the communities our staff and their families live in.”

Department staffers also provided food and drinks to those staying in shelters, as well as a generator for a water pump station in Big Stone Gap.

The Chesterfield County Fire & Emergency Medical Services and other agencies sent crews to assist.

With many people still out of power and cellphone service still spotty, state and local officials have deployed generators at key spots, such as pharmacies, and set up temporary cell phone towers; they’ve scrambled to get medication and oxygen tanks to people, and are using helicopters to get food and water to people still isolated because of blocked roads, Youngkin said.

Virginia Department of Transportation crews are working to clear roadways, but some major routes and bridges are still damaged. The massive amount of floodwaters is also having an impact on drinking water. A boil notice was issued for Montgomery County, which includes Blacksburg and Christiansburg. It is the first time in recent memory that a boil notice includes both of the towns.

James River expected to crest Tuesday

With rain in the forecast while hurricane watchers are keeping a nervous eye on a trough of low pressure in the Caribbean that could become another major storm, Youngkin said it’s important that people in flood prone areas get to safer areas.

“They need to get to a safe place, they need to understand that particularly the New River is still angry, the river is angry and rain is only going to make it worse,” Youngkin said. This is particularly grave concern in Washington, Grayson, Wythe and Pulaski counties.

“If you need shelter, we get ‘em, we understand people are reluctant to leave their stuff behind but we’ve got to get people to a safe place,” he said.

In the Richmond region, the James River has been rising and falling over the last couple days after a deluge upriver from Tropical Storm Helene as well as some additional days of drizzle locally. At the Westham Gauge near the Huguenot Bridge, the river on Monday topped out at 12.54 feet, which is considered minor flooding. After briefly falling a little, it’s expected to hit 14 feet on Tuesday, still minor flooding, and stay at that level for a couple days.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Water Prediction Service, at 14 feet, portions of Riverside Drive and Huguenot Flatwater park could begin to flood. The next stage above minor flooding is moderate flooding. The threshold for that is 15 feet at this gauge.

Downstream at Richmond Locks, the James is expected to crest by Tuesday evening at 10.10 feet — minor flooding. At 9 feet, the Ancarrow’s Boat Landing is closed. At 11 feet, Rocketts Landing Park and the Virginia Capital Trail start to flood.

‘We’ve never seen anything like this’

Manoochehr Shirzaei, a Virginia Tech associate professor of geophysics and environmental security expert, said the flooding from Helene is the product of development in floodplains and outdated inadequate infrastructure.

“Over the past few decades, the expansion of human populations into flood-prone areas has accelerated worldwide. Many of these vulnerable communities are located in river valleys or downstream of dams, areas particularly susceptible to sudden and significant water discharges, further exacerbating the risk of severe flooding,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the state is pushing hard to seed a federal major disaster declaration to start the flow of funds for the big bills still to come, for infrastructure and for help for people who have lost everything in the storm, Youngkin said. He said the state is also moving to expand the list of counties and cities included in its declaration of disaster.

“I heard over and over and over again, ‘We’ve never seen anything like this,’” Youngkin said after two days in Southwest Virginia looking at the extent of storm damage.

Two major initiatives launched well before the storm paid off, state officials said.

One was the training the Virginia National Guard’s Richmond-based Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Teams have been working on with the state’s search and rescue teams efforts ahead of the storm — that’s made coordination of aerial and on-the-ground efforts go faster.

Their efforts made it possible for the Virginia State Police to free up two of its helicopters to help rescue more than 50 patients from the roof of the flooded Unicoi County Hospital in nearby Tennessee, Lt. Col. Matt Hanley said.

Another innovation that sped emergency response was the state’s expansion of flood-gauges and sensors and new systems for real time monitoring, which allowed officials to get critical supplies and the vital swift water rescue teams in position to help before floodwaters blocked roads, said Shawn Talmadge, state coordinator for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

Although floodwaters overtopped some dams, they’re still holding — the big concern now is what’s in the water behind the dams “propane tanks, cars,” Youngkin said. “We’ve got (hazardous materials) teams out trying to get that stuff out of the water.”

Youngkin said he can’t begin to estimate the cost of damages from Helene — assessing that is just getting started, and will be key to getting federal emergency funds for recovery where they are needed.

“Some people have lost everything,” Youngkin said.

But in many cases — like the manager of the Subway restaurant in Damascus, who hauled in his gas grill from home to start cooking hot meals from the restaurant’s supplies: “It’s been Virginians helping Virginians.”

Joaquin Mancera, of the Bristol Herald Courier, contributed to this report.