Richmond Remembers: How Tropical Storm Gaston flooded Shockoe Bottom

Richmond's northern flood ft of concrete and steel Shao Valley from the wrat River. It's lined with na have come and gone, wreak leaving ruin in their wak missing a storm that turn down and the flood wall w it on Monday, August 30th and hit the brakes right was, it was insane. Forme Chris Norton was behind t I'd never seen it rain th ever. And the fact that i of hours, he was initiall side neighborhood that ty bad storms but was rerout even remember where we pa how we got down here. Eve to the corner of Canal in see kind of halfway down was up to there and they from the bottom up in boa boats but like regular li and rafts and stuff like bringing people up and it It's estimated that as ma have fallen in a period o hours. We get big heavy r from tropical systems but in that short a period of chief meteorologist Zach nature of Shao Bottom mad situation that much worse no place for the water to It was just a flash flood and it happened to be in funnels in and within a m mean, it was, it was trul said, but it was, it was going down 15th and down swept away, power poles b lights being knocked down and so powerful. I, you k and I I would have never jumped into the water to was just, it was impossib Chapman worked on 15th st the the wall over by the was coming over that wall would see at Z dam on the point, he knew the only d up once we were able to s on the second floor. Look looked like an event wher to lose their lives while away from the rising wate ran towards it by far. Th event. Richmond police ch it was an all hands on de know, I just remember hea people were calling 911 s to come pick me up and ta thing. And we're like, no at. You know, if it's an But, you know, we can't d getting stuck in the rain washed off the road while zero. Other parts of the own deluge. The pow hide causing catastrophic dama and falling creek turned washing away most everyth current just swept me to is where my truck rested. if the cur wasn't there, right down in gully and I goner. Countless acts of on tape during the height used ropes, human chains to get people to safety. in the Richmond area lost result of the flash flood who tried to drive throug sometime that night, the quickly as the floodwater But come morning, the tru was on full display, deva um a lot of the businesse is overwhelming. It's rea to see all this stuff tha walls is caved in. I gott before the flood cco bott starting to establish its residential neighborhood. recognizable. The area be and maybe 18th street, es down towards the river wa Nearly two dozen historic covered in filth and cond went down. It looked like in a tub, had a bunch of let the water out and all in the corner of the tub looked like and it was re I just remember thinking, be working 12 hour shifts The recovery took days, w longer for some. And you 59 was closed for years. the storm, anguish was co What is the city going to strain the sewer drains? an outdated drainage syst the chaos and almost no o flood insurance since the flood wall. A decade prio out of the flood zone. Yo it was a matter of every had to be repaid out of p cost millions. All I care because hey, the Alumina all the challenges, a sen rose to the surface, this It's heartbreaking true. that I am alive and I can going to, we know that wh that we are a resilient c community. And uh this to Seems like the blink of a survived gas stone in the it happened before youtub some are just now getting look at the storm that th never seen video from tha event that will hopefully Wow. Think about how much now than, than 20 years a living down here. There's here. You would have a lo here if, if something lik