Historic Richmond Facing Uncertain Future After Flooding

Shockoe Bottom’s 17.5 Ethos Cafe didn’t have flood insurance. With a 21-foot flood wall shielding the historic, low-lying area in Richmond, Va., from the nearby James River, part-owners of the cafe, Kathy Emerson and Damon Persiani, saw no need to buy coverage.

Almost none of the businesses or apartment buildings in the area ravaged on Aug. 30 by night flooding caused by Tropical Storm Gaston insured themselves against the more than 10 feet of filthy, surging water that devastated their homes and businesses.

“Only one person I know of down here had flood insurance,” Persiani said, enduring the choking stench of mildew to drag moldering, mud-covered furniture and equipment from what had been a thriving gourmet coffee and antiquarian book shop.

The flood killed eight people and destroyed or damaged 350 homes in central Virginia.

President Bush approved a request for federal disaster aid for individuals and businesses that experienced the ravages of the storm. The president approved the aid for the hard-hit cities of Richmond, Hopewell, Colonial Heights and Petersburg, as well as the counties of Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Hanover, Henrico and Prince George.

Gov. Mark R. Warner has also asked for public assistance and hazard mitigation funding, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still evaluating the damage.

Property owners, residents and business proprietors in Shockoe Bottom were not allowed to return unescorted inside the 20-block flood zone that police had cordoned off until late in the week.

Work crews using back hoes, dump trucks and high-pressure fire hoses have worked round-the-clock to clear away soupy, ankle-deep mud from the streets and officials have checked the structures to make sure they are safe to re-enter.

Since the massive concrete breastwork more than 4,000 feet long was completed in 1990 to protect 150 acres of the Shockoe Valley from frequent river flooding, the area has flourished with shops, bistros, loft apartments, bars and professional offices.

Lenders dropped requirement
Most lenders dropped their requirement that landlords or business owners carry flood insurance as a condition of financing, Persiani said.

Business owners said nobody had considered that the wall designed to hold back the James might bottle up the runoff from more than a foot of rain cascading into the Bottom off Church Hill to the east and the long slope on which the Capitol sits to the west.

Even though the wall’s massive gates were open, the heavy volume of water inundated the area in minutes, stranding people for hours on upper floors of buildings, in their cars and even on a city bus.

Jeremiah Bailey Ivan, a single, 30-year-old young professionals typical of those who have flocked to Shockoe Bottom, said that without federal aid, it might never rebound.

“I think you can say goodbye to Richmond’s renaissance down here unless FEMA gets its act together,” said Ivan, a computer programmer who wanted to return to his third-floor loft apartment safely above the flood’s damage.

John Thomas says he is leaving the Bottom for Richmond’s West End. During the storm, he noticed water rush down Main Street and lap over the curb and onto the brick sidewalk outside the storefront office where he practiced patent law. A moment later, water had covered the sidewalk and was trickling beneath his front door.

“I tried to jam some paper under the door to soak it up,” he said, but by the time he stood, the water outside was two feet deep and pressing hard against the door. “The door started shaking and I just stepped back. Then it just exploded open.”

Thomas scrambled onto a edge just inside his front door and crouched there in a niche for 4 1/2 hours until the water, which had crept 7 feet up his walls, finally receded.

At home, his wife was terrified after watching a television report that a building on the same corner had collapsed. Unable to reach her husband by phone, Kathleen Thomas feared for his life. “It was one of those surreal moments when your world is spinning out of control,” she said.

Eventually, John Thomas was able to shout to residents trapped in a second-floor apartment above his office and ask them to telephone his wife to let her know he was OK.

Tears welled in his eyes and his voice paused as he finished his story. “A few minutes later, they shouted back down at me and said, ‘Hey, man, your wife says to tell you she loves you,'” he said.

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