Rescuers were going door to door in Dante on Friday afternoon when they heard someone yelling “Help!”
Capt. Wesley Lawson of the St. Paul Fire Department said they saw the heads of a man and a woman as they were carried down the overflowing Lick Creek, swollen after a sudden downpour. Their small pickup truck was carried along ahead of them.
The vehicle slammed into a culvert in front of a nearby apartment building and got stuck. The man and woman swept past a bandstand, which was standing in several feet of water, Lawson said.
The man was able to grab onto a picnic table and climb atop it, and rescuers told him to stay put. But the woman was carried on in the rush of water.
An apartment building resident came out onto the front steps, and rescue personnel screamed at him to go back inside, Lawson said. Meanwhile, the woman was sucked into the culvert through a hole where the concrete cap had collapsed. She came out the other side and careened along with the flood.
The lifesaving crew from the nearby town of Cleveland had a rescue boat downstream, checking for residents in what had been the yard in front of a single-wide mobile home, Lawson explained. Finally, the woman floated toward them and they were able to grab her.
She had washed down with the stream for about 2,000 feet before being rescued, Lawson estimated.
She was taken to Tennessee’s Johnson City Medical Center for surgery, with serious injuries, he said. 
In all, 13 people were reported injured in Friday’s flood in Dante; some of those were reports of chest pain. At least 36 were rescued.
By the time the rain stopped Friday evening, up to 7 inches had fallen in the Dante vicinity. Swift-water rescue crews were mobilized from across the region to evacuate residents, and Russell County officials later declared a state of emergency.
State Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington County, said several people had been “completely displaced,” but an exact figure was not available Sunday.
Damage assessment and recovery
Locals pronounce it “Daint.”
The unincorporated community of nearly 600 — a former coal camp that once housed employees of Clinchfield Coal Co. — is a collection of hollows downhill from Virginia 63, which climbs steeply up Hazel Mountain. At the peak is the Dickenson County line.
For decades, underground coal mining operations tunneled into the mountain and surrounding hills, leaving an untold number of old mine works that tend to hasten the flow of groundwater.
When rain cascades off Hazel Mountain fast and heavy, the creeks can no longer contain it. So it was Friday afternoon, as the floodwaters churned downhill.
County Administrator Lonzo Lester said three creeks flow down into the hollows. Within about 40 minutes, one of the bridges in the Bunch Town section of Dante was covered with water. Eleven hollows were flooded to some extent, from West Dante, through Upper Bearwallow, then rushing into Lower Bearwallow and Bunch Town, all the way downhill to the Sun community.
Lester was among county officials on hand Sunday when Ninth District U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith toured the flooded community. 
A flood recovery center has been established in the Dante community center. At the front desk Sunday afternoon, volunteers said 38 people from 27 households had stopped by for supplies just that day. Available were food, drinks, tools, toiletries, paper towels and more.
County Supervisor Lou Wallace, a St. Paul resident, told Griffith that among the immediate needs is money to help people replace mattresses and other home furnishings.
She noted that rescue volunteers had experienced communications problems until the Russell County Public Service Authority set up StarLink internet access for the recovery center.
Along with distributing food and supplies, volunteers are taking information on residents’ needs to provide to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Wallace noted.
Griffith said he will work with the county to seek Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, but he believes it is unlikely to be approved because of the size of the flooded area and the relatively low number of affected individuals, compared to more recent larger disasters.
Griffith said he intends to do what he can on the federal side to assist Virginia agencies on the scene. Also, he noted that there may need to be future efforts to approve Army Corps of Engineers flood control projects for the community.
Wallace said the St. Paul Fire Department and the Russell County Sheriff’s Office are taking the lead on recovery and relief efforts.
As she spoke, hot food had been prepared, both for residents who show up there and to be distributed by volunteer “runners” who will deliver meals throughout the community.
Dante was not slammed by Hurricane Helene last autumn as some Southwest Virginia communities were, but Russell County officials took lessons from Helene for the future, Wallace explained. Thus, they were prepared for last week’s flooding by already having new electricity generators at the community center and the rescue squad building.
Also, they were prepared to host displaced people at a nearby campground, with at least one family now staying in a recreational vehicle. Wallace said she had been told that the Lebanon Baptist Association may be delivering three or four additional RVs.
Lawson said anyone who wants to donate money to help Dante residents can find a link to do so on the St. Paul Fire Department Facebook page. There is an option to donate through PayPal.
