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By Meghan McIntyre

Capital News Service

Yvonne Rife was in the attic holding her dog Lucy as her Buchanan County home was swept off its foundation and carried a quarter of a mile by the water.

A large oak tree lodged in a trestle bridge eventually halted the home, she said. She lost everything, Rife said, including two cats, the house she lived in for over 40 years and the precious memories it contained.

Rife’s cousin, Opal Mildred Rife, died and 70 residences were destroyed or seriously damaged last August in Hurley, a small community located in Southwest Virginia. A heavy downpour of rain combined with mudslides over the course of a few hours resulted in a flood Rife said she’s never seen before.

“I was hitting things and things were hitting me, just awful scratching and banging,” Rife said. “It was worse than any carnival ride.”

Climate change advocates and some officials warn that flooding due to increased precipitation – such as the one in Hurley – will cost Virginia billions of dollars and threaten residents’ safety. This is something they warn will get worse unless mitigation efforts receive proper funding – sooner rather than later.

Rising waters

The total annual precipitation in Virginia has trended slightly upward since 2000, according to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information 2022 state climate summary. The wettest consecutive 5-year interval in the state’s history was recorded between 2016-2020. The highest rates of 2-inch extreme precipitation events were recorded between 2015-2020 and are projected to increase over time.

TV weather reports estimated the area around Guesses Fork Road in Hurley received as much as 7 inches of rain in a few hours. Similar events have happened all over the state, like in 2019 when a month’s worth of rain fell around the Northern Virginia area in an hour, turning roads into rivers, flooding basements and causing massive sinkholes, according to The Washington Post.

Heavy rain in Radford during 2013 caused the New River to overflow and peak at 21 feet, consuming parks, the Radford Animal Shelter and more than 100 cars, according to WSET.

Precipitation events like prolonged or intense rainfall can inundate areas throughout the state with flooding, caused when runoff overwhelms natural or built drainage systems, according to the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan. Heavy rainfall can also cause rivers and streams to overflow and lead to flooding.

Rising costs

Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster, according to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. It is estimated that 1 inch of water in a home can cause upward of $25,000 in damages.

Rife estimated she lost over $500,000 during the flood, between the home, property and total belongings. She said she canceled her flood insurance months before the incident due to financial struggles, leaving her with no coverage on the day she most needed it.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, denied requests for private assistance for residents of Hurley, according to multiple news outlets. Donations and efforts from churches, individuals and the United Way of Southwest Virginia have supported residents for months. FEMA distributed public assistance funds for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities.

While projects aimed at mitigating damage from flooding could cost the commonwealth billions, not investing in them would cost significantly more, said Norfolk City Councilwoman Andria McClellan.

The cost of flood damages annually for coastal residential, public and commercial buildings is projected to increase by over 930% from $550 million to $5.7 billion by 2080, according to the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan.

“When you talk to FEMA, they say for every dollar invested now, you’re saving between $7 to $10 of post disaster recovery money,” McClellan said.

Hurley “still looks like a war zone,” eight months after the event, Rife said. The town has not received enough assistance through the county, state or federal government, she said.

“We are tired of waiting and we’re just praying that we do get help,” Rife said.

The underlying issue which McClellan and other climate advocates consistently point out is there is not nearly enough funding from the state to support current flood survivors and invest in mitigation projects.

Where’s the money?

Virginia never prioritized funding flood mitigation projects until the Community Flood Preparedness Fund was created in 2020, McClellan said. Proceeds of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, is the sole source of financing for the fund, which has received approximately $142 million since March 2021, according to the Department of Environmental Quality.

“The bad news is, one project in my neighborhood costs $80 million,” McClellan said

Gov. Glenn Youngkin has called to end Virginia’s participation in RGGI. He signed an executive order which failed to take effect, and then released a report from the DEQ which outlined reasons why the initiative would not benefit taxpayers.

It would be detrimental for Virginia to withdraw from RGGI, said Jay Ford, Virginia policy and grassroots adviser for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat that we are not where we should be in our response to rising waters and recurrent flooding,” Ford said. “The consequences would be significant.”

Localities are sometimes able to access federal funding in the event of a natural disaster, such as when FEMA provided assistance after Tropical Storm Gaston struck the state in 2004, as well as Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The Olde Towne Stormwater Pump Station in the City of Portsmouth received over $7 million from a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant. The improvement of the drainage system showcases how federal funding can support the construction of critical flood mitigation projects.

This is the case with Hurley, when FEMA denied assistance to individuals, saying the flooding lacked “severity and magnitude,” according to United Way of Southwest Virginia.

U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, along with Rep. Morgan Griffith, announced in February $174,458 in funding for Hurley from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

House Republicans proposed $11.4 million in state funding explicitly for survivors of the flood in Hurley, in fiscal year 2022. Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell County, initially introduced legislation to create a designated fund for flood victims using RGGI money. Morefield requested to table the bill after determining “a clearer path in securing private assistance,” for Hurley residents.

The solutions

Faith Williams Schesventer is the Hampton Roads community organizer for Mothers Out Front, or MOF, a mother-led volunteer group aimed at developing solutions to create a livable climate.

She is proud of the work MOF has accomplished, like creating alternative school bus routes when streets flood, but acknowledged that large-scale change comes from protections and funding implemented through legislation.

Lawmakers should look at what grassroots organizations like MOF are doing and use it to inform policy, Williams Schesventer said.

Implementing tree steward programs is a step towards mitigating the effects of flooding, said Desiree Shelley, community organizer for MOF in Roanoke.

Restoring previously deforested and degraded riparian areas would serve as a buffer to prevent runoff, Shelley said.

Shelly has also seen design efforts that help prevent flooding in parking lots through use of permeable pavers to help to absorb water.

The Agrarian Commons, a nationwide effort with members in Virginia, works to put land into a trust so that it stays within a sustainable agriculture model unthreatened by development – another solution Shelley said can help the effort.

The Ohio Creek Watershed Project in Norfolk is funded through a federal grant that protects the area from increased flood hazards and connects the Chesterfield Heights and Grandy Village neighborhoods with a multi-use park that could be used for community gatherings, McClellan said.

Virginia Beach residents approved a referendum last year that will allow the city to issue up to $567 million in bonds to cover the cost of a flood protection program designed to deal with stormwater and sea level rise issues.

The bond-issuances will increase real estate taxes for residents over the next decade to fund over 20 flood protection projects.

The new normal

“Flooding in the Hampton Roads area is a regular life occurrence,” Schesventer said. “Anything from water into the yards to being completely immobilized.”

Another challenge to building mitigation efforts is that some people accept heavy precipitation and flooding as normal events, not as a direct result of climate change, Shelley said.

In the current political atmosphere, some policymakers and citizens won’t admit climate change is a real thing and recognize that it would be a huge step toward building solutions, Shelley said.

“If we have to keep pretending that flooding is just this random thing that’s happening and we don’t know why it’s happening, it’s really hard for us to have a real conversation about what we are going to do about it,” Shelley said.

Williams Schesventer has heard from community members stuck at home sometimes for days because of flooding.. Homeowners, especially those without flood insurance, are left with costly repairs when rooms or basements are flooded.

Mold and mildew were present inside the homes of about a third of the Portsmouth households with asthma, according to a 2021 Old Dominion University study between the link of asthma in children and neighborhoods that experience flooding. Researchers reported the prevalence of pediatric asthma in the Hampton Roads area is above the state average, and that low-income households had a higher rate of children affected. The authors said the study should “ring alarm bells.”

One of McClellan’s constituents took their paddle board out to the bus stop to get their kids home because of flooding, she said.

Flooding also leads to school cancellations, which families said their kids weren’t performing as well because they were missing days of school, according to Williams Schesventer. Flooding is causing financial, environmental, and social economic problems, she said.

Moving forward

McClellan emphasized the importance of getting lawmakers to truly understand the consequences of inaction when it comes to funding these efforts.

“What we really need is the political will,” McClellan said. “That is a piece of the puzzle that has been missing.”

The lack of acknowledgement and flood mitigation funding can be frustrating, Shelley said, but it’s important to realize that climate change might not be the first thing on people’s mind when other issues are directly affecting them.

“We’re in a pandemic and people are just trying to survive day to day,” Shelley said.

While people can understandably feel overwhelmed, getting in touch with legislators to let them know this is a priority is important, Ford said.

Rife has been reaching out to legislators for help and supports the effort toward funding mitigation projects, she said.

“I don’t want anybody to ever have to go through what I went through,” Rife said.