Flash Flood — Henry, Virginia

2020-05-24 to 2020-05-25 · near Fieldale, Henry, Virginia

Event narrative

The Smith River was reported to be completely flooding over River Road in Fieldale near Shadyview Road. The Smith River at Bassett (BASV2) stage was around 12 feet near the time of this report. The river crested at 13.35 feet (14400 cfs) around 822 EST per USGS statistics. No flood stage had been set at this gage mainly due to the flood control exercised by Philpott Dam. But the stage was the 2nd highest since dam began operation in 1952, after the flood in September, 1987 of 15.20 feet. It should be noted that Philpott Dam lost power earlier in the evening due to a mudslide and the dam operators were unable to reduce downstream flows to the normal extent.

Wider weather episode

Late afternoon thunderstorms developed along the southwest Virginia Blue Ridge and drifted southward into the foothills and piedmont producing intense rainfall over fairly saturated ground and causing some significant flash flooding and debris flows in parts of Franklin, Floyd and Henry counties. Rainfall of 2 to 4 inches with isolated higher amounts occurred in a few hours, with the heaviest over northern Henry County. A state of Emergency was declared in Henry County due to the flooding. Flood damage estimates exceeded $1.1 million with eight homes and one business receiving major damage. The storms also reached severe levels in terms of wind with considerable damage reported, mainly across Henry County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.7100, -79.9400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 892391. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.