Businesses, homes cleaning up after flooding in many parts of Star City

ROANOKE, Va. – Many of the residents in the Cave Spring area were still in the middle of repairs after their homes were flooded in May. After the rain Thursday night, they have to start over.

Chris Kocher is once again standing in several feet of water in her basement. We visited the same neighborhood in Cave Spring in May when significant flooding last hit the area. Frustration has set in for Kocher. 

"I mean, what can I do? I can't afford to sell. I'm going to lose my butt on selling so what can I do? Hire a lifeguard and have a swimming pool in my basement?" said Kocher. 

She believes the flooding this time is worse than five months ago. She says parts of her home will never be the same.

"I will never be able to refinish my basement like it was. I lost about 750 square-feet of living space and I can't afford to put that back. Never got to use my brand new furnace," said Kocher. 

Johnny Shingleton is the crew chief at Rainbow International. The restoration and cleaning business has been busy since last night working several homes like Kocher's. He says if you find water damage, it's best to start taking care of the issue as quickly as you can.

"If there's a drain back up you just have to wait for it to stop, until us or another company can come out. Get as much water as you can out. If you can get some of your contents out, carpet, get it out of your house," said Shingleton. 

To prevent mold, you can buy an type of air mover, fans or dehumidifiers to help control the help until professional help arrives.

All along Franklin Road there was still a lot of cleanup going on.

Jeanie Bono, of Gloss Salon, said they were working Thursday afternoon when the rain started to flood the streets and pour inside her shop. Workers used some of the sandbags they had leftover from Florence to block the doors to the salon. 
Eventually, everyone left after staying as long as they could. Bono said this is the second time the place has flooded since she opened nearly six years ago.

"We're trying to urge clients to leave as fast as they could because we were still doing hair and people were still coming and going about their day. But no one realize how fast the water was going to come. We were putting clients in the car with wet hair and we were just like get out of here," said Bono. 

The salon plans to be back open Saturday for business.