After the Storm: Cleanup continues following Helene’s aftermath

By WILLIAM PAINE

Patriot Publishing

More than a week after the New River jumped its banks in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, those impacted by the floodwaters are still cleaning up the mess left in the wake of the storm. Saturday, Sept. 28 saw the waters of the New River rise to heights not seen in more than 80 years.

For some, the day that the old New River just kept rising is still fresh in their minds.

“It’s just hard to believe how quickly the water rose,” said Anthony Barnes, who owns River Junction Campground and Canoeing. “Once it got to a point where it was leveling out, then it just come another round.”

River Junction Campground is situated in Wythe County between Allisonia and Barren Springs at the point where Reed Creek feeds into the New River.

“We got all that stuff up from Wytheville on top of what we already had on the river and it really exploded then,” said Barnes. “It started Saturday evening around 5 till 7 o’clock. It probably rose 7 feet in that time. It got 15 feet above the ground. I lost both gazebos, a playground, and it completely covered the bathhouse. Thankfully nobody got hurt, but we had four campers and a pickup truck get flooded. One of the biggest issues we faced when the water receded, was the mud. It’s left anywhere from two to four feet of mud. We’ve had a machine in there and I’d say there was probably 70 to 80 ton of silt. So anyway, it’s been a slow go… it’s going to be touch and go to see if we can get open before Thanksgiving.”

Though flood damage was more intense and deadly further upstream from Pulaski County, areas miles downstream from the River Junction Campground also took a beating in the aftermath of Helene. The Sportsman restaurant and campground about a mile downriver of the Claytor Lake dam, was completely inundated with water, as was the Radford Animal shelter, which has remained closed since the floodwaters reached their apogee more than two weeks ago.

Anyone with property along the New River can relate to the prodigious quantities of mud needing to be cleared away before normal activities resume. However, neither the mud nor the rising water levels were the primary concern for Claytor Lake residents.  Hurricane Helene’s most significant impact on the lives of lake-landers involves the huge and potentially hazardous debris deposits floating on the lake’s surface.

As of Thursday Oct. 10, public boat launches on Claytor Lake are still closed and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resource will issue citations to any unauthorized boater on the lake.

“Yes, the lake is still closed,” said Laura Walters who acts as Environmental Coordinator for the Friends of Claytor Lake (FOCL). “The concern is that somebody goes out there and they hit a half-submerged grill tank and blow themselves up with a prop. That’s why they really don’t want people boating.”

For years, the Friends of Claytor Lake have operated a clean-up operation consisting of a motorboat that pushes a barge equipped with a conveyer belt that feeds debris into a large roll off container.

“We’ve pulled out hundreds of propane tanks, grill tanks, a couple septic tanks, oil and gas tanks, all that kind of stuff,” said Walters. “Hazmat asked us to help with that. Hazmat doesn’t have any heavy equipment. Nobody knows how to use heavy equipment on water like FOCL.”

For the first week after the flood, the FOCL clean-up crew concentrated on collecting potentially hazardous materials from the water’s surface but valuable pieces of personal property were also part of the debris field.

“In fact, a lady came in here today from Allisonia,” said Walters, who lives on Claytor Lake. “Her pontoon and her dock were pulled in by FOCL and I’ve got it tied down here at our boathouse. She just teared up. We’ve been working with the Coast Guard to do a spreadsheet of everything that’s found, so we can cross reference it. She went to the state park looking and asking and they called to see if we had it and, of course, we did. It went under the Lighthouse Bridge and knocked the top down and there’s a dent in the pontoon but otherwise it’s not terribly damaged.”

FOCL has been in the business of cleaning Claytor Lake for about 30 years and Dean Jackson, of Conrad Brothers Marina, was one of the founding members.

“In 1992 there was a flood event that brought in a lot of trash to Peak Creek, like the one that came down New River this time, but Peak Creek was impassable for a whole month,” Jackson recounted. “You couldn’t get in and out. That’s actually kind of what started FOCL. There was another event before that, where there was a big wash out up at the old Allied Chemical Plant. Doodle dust came down Peak Creek and turned it red for several days. So, that spurred us into action.”

Jackson was among a group of men who traveled to Portsmouth, Virginia to buy a Navy surplus boat for the newly formed Friends of Peak Creek in 2004. The boat they chose to bring back to Claytor Lake was reserved but later became available. The Navy gave the boat to FOCL at no cost, though the state of Virginia charged them $5,000 for licensing. It was later christened the Miss Pulaski County.

In 1999, this Navy boat that was to become Miss Pulaski County assisted the USS Grasp in the recovery operation following the plane crash of John F. Kennedy Jr. near Martha’s Vineyard. It was used to bring salvage implements like cables and ropes to and from the USS Grasp. Interestingly, Virginia Senate candidate Hung Cao worked that same recovery operation as a U.S. Navy Diver.

For many years the Miss Pulaski County has pushed the barge and its equipment around Claytor Lake in its seasonal clean-up operation and this latest flood event was no exception. However, during this latest clean up, the Miss Pulaski County broke down and FOCL is still searching for parts for the 40-year-old watercraft.

Fortunately, for lake dwellers, FOCL had purchased another push boat, which it put into service after Miss Pulaski County broke down. The second push boat (which was never given a name) struck a piece of debris and broke its propeller last Thursday, Oct. 3. Conrad Brothers Marina had the prop fixed by Saturday, Oct. 5 and the FOCL barge has been back in action ever since.

After collecting as many propane tanks and stray watercraft as they could find, the FOCL barge cleanup crew began the work of clearing the mounds of debris that had collected in coves and bridges on Claytor Lake.

“We started also pulling debris Monday (Oct. 7) and we probably got five loads of 15 tons, that’s not a drop in the bucket,” said Walters of the ongoing Claytor Lake cleanup operation. “We’ve probably got a year’s worth of debris cleanup on the lake.”

Cleanup work continues on the shores and in the waters of the New River, both above and below the Claytor Lake dam.