As floodwaters recede, Hurley residents begin the long cleanup

Snoda Compton is used to serving hot meals to hungry people, but her food is normally eaten by children and she doesn’t feed them in the dark.

Compton is the cafeteria manager at Hurley Elementary/Middle School, where, on Monday, she was running a temporary shelter for those impacted by weekend flooding in the small mountain community of about 2,700 residents in Buchanan County.

The school was opened as soon as the water from nearby Knox Creek started to rise on Saturday, following days of rain that began earlier in the week and continued through the weekend. Some areas had as much as 7 inches of rain over several days.

Hurley was one of the areas that sustained the most damage, although flooding occurred across a large swath of Southwest Virginia, with some of the worst in Buchanan, Tazewell and Dickenson counties. Floodwaters rushed through homes and businesses and destroyed roads and bridges, and mudslides brought down the sides of hills. One person in Bland County died in the flooding.

The school, whose ballfield was still partially under water on Monday, isn’t normally used as a shelter, but a nearby gym that’s usually used was flooded with about 5 inches of water and mud, according to Compton. The shelter will move to the gym, which is about a mile away, once it’s been cleaned.

Shortly after the school shelter opened, the power went out across the community, so those spending the night or stopping by for some hot food — prepared at a Grundy school and transported in hot bags — were in the dark. But the 10 people who slept at the school Sunday night were warm, thanks to the school’s boiler, she said.

On Monday afternoon, the school was a busy hub, where Compton and some of her cafeteria staff helped people get a warm meal, handed out water and passed out propane and small kerosene heaters to those looking for some much-needed warmth. A few talked about how they will get through expected snow and single-digit temperatures expected later this week.

Compton said she experienced some flooding, mainly in her garage. But she said it was nothing compared to what friends and family members who lived closer to the Hurley town center, about a mile down Hurley Road, were going through.

She has been worried about her students and was happy that a few dropped by on Monday.

“We’ve had no communication, no power, no internet, no nothing. We don’t know if it’s going to rain again, we don’t know if people are OK or they’re not OK. The sheriff’s office has been going door to door making welfare checks. … Neighbors need to check on neighbors. You know, we’re a very tight-knit community.”

Compton and several others noted that communities in the Hurley area have been through several significant flooding events. The region has now had four major floods since 2021, two in the Hurley area and another in the Whitewood community of Buchanan County. Last September, the remnants of Hurricane Helene brought heavy rain, high winds and flooding damage to a number of Southwest Virginia counties.

In Hurley on Monday, mud covered the streets, parking lots and driveways in the town center. Debris was piled up on the sides of roads and littered the bridges, while several cars were submerged in the mud and another rested on its side against a tree.

The few businesses in the town center were closed. Residents cleaned up yards and drained basements and rooms in their houses, and many tried to make a dent in the mud with shovels and heavy machinery.

Most of the community has no electricity or water and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon, said Buchanan County sheriff’s deputy Andy Webb.

“Water is going to be a long time getting back. I think the main line was damaged in the flooding,” said the deputy, who added that he had just asked someone with the power company when electricity would be restored and was told that they didn’t know, but that a lot of power poles would have to be replaced.

Just down the road, traffic backed up as crews worked to lift a downed power line dangling above the creek.

Several trucks from the Virginia National Guard 1032, based in Gate City, came to Hurley to deliver frozen meals and water, particularly to people who were stuck in their homes because the high water had damaged the private bridges that cross the creek to their houses.

John Tickles accepted some of the frozen dinners. He was trying to get back to his truck, which he’d parked at a friend’s house after he’d tried to drive home through the water Saturday morning. He’d turned back when he realized it was several feet deep.

He said his girlfriend and her mother had to be rescued by a swift-water team in a boat, which turned up just as his girlfriend was going to jump outside into the water because she was worried about getting electrocuted in the rising water in her house, Tickles said.

“She was really traumatized,” he said.

The flooding damaged his home and destroyed everything inside, as well as an outbuilding that housed a generator and a number of tools that he makes a living with.

“Everything I could ever need was there and it all got took down the river,” he said. “I’m just going to take one day at a time and pray to God.”

In the nearby Slate Creek community, volunteer fire department Chief Rages Matney and firefighter Austin Shortridge were handing out water, cupcakes and other donated items to folks who stopped in.

Matney said his home had sustained some flooding damage. Across from the fire station, the road is high above the creek and so the floodwaters never reached the pavement, but it filled yards and crept into houses, he said.

A full assessment or estimate of damage in Hurley and other areas where the flooding took place hasn’t been completed yet. A spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said Monday that the department currently has seven damage assessment teams going door to door in Southwest Virginia.