SOUTH BOSTON, Va. – A large portion of South Boston remained inaccessible Thursday as flood waters continued to recede.
"This water came up mighty fast this time. Probably faster than when (Hurricane) Fran came through," South Boston Town Manager Tom Raab said about the floodwater.
According to the National Weather Service, the Dan River crested at 30.25 feet of water.
While that's not a record, it will still leave a big mess for the town to clean up.
"(The public works department gets) out with their brooms and, actually, big track hoes and we push the water around, keep the water flowing, so that we can get the trash off the road," Raab explained.
"Then, what we don't get off, the mud and sand, to get that swept up we've got our street sweeper that we bring down and it cleans and we be sure that the driveways are in good shape."
Thursday, with businesses in the flood zone still underwater and inaccessible, the exact toll this flooding has taken on the town was still unknown.
Small-business owner Tom Moneymaker provided some insight though.
"You've got, of course, the water damage, the smell of the floodwater, the mud, the mess. It just takes time to get everything back up and running again," Moneymaker said.
In 1996 when Hurricane Fran caused major flooding, he had a small engine shop in the area that was flooded Thursday.
"I haven't seen it this high since then. It's a lot of work to come back and clean up behind it because you've got to get that mud out very quickly," Moneymaker said.
Nathaniel McLaughlin was traveling from Richmond to Danville and did not realize that the flooding was this bad.
"With the last week of rain we've had, I didn't think we'd ever see the blue sky, but it's crazy out here."
Raab said the cost of cleanup for the town will probably be in the thousands of dollars.
As of Thursday afternoon, the river was expected to be back below flood stage by 2 p.m. Saturday.