DANVILLE, Va. – Historic flooding in Danville left a muddy mess for Mark Boyer, local business owner, to clean up Monday morning.
“We’re one of the first areas to flood, so it’s not a surprise. It’s a surprise that it’s happened so many times,” Boyer said.
Boyer co-owns Roots & Shoots Landscaping and invested in Cotton at Riverside Mill, a restaurant and event venue by the Dan River. Floodwaters reached over 27 feet there on Saturday, the third-highest since 1996.
“We’ve got to scoop all the mud and silt out of the plant beds. We’ve got expensive landscaping down here we gotta protect too. So, it’s just a matter of removing dirt and washing behind it,” Boyer said.
Now that the floodwaters have receded and public works have cleaned up the roads, they’re focusing their attention on the Riverwalk.
“A lot of debris, a lot of silt that will need to be removed, and we do have some structural damage,” Danville Parks and Recreation director Bill Sgrinia said.
He says it’ll take weeks to clean and repair Angler’s Park and the Riverwalk Trail. The trail still hasn’t fully recovered since tropical storm Michael devastated the area in 2018.
“It does get a little frustrating, but it’s such a great amenity to the city and to the region. We really have a lot of people who are supportive of us getting it back up and open as quickly as we can,” Sgrinia said.
The city doesn’t have a final tally on the cost of the repairs.
Boyer is brainstorming other flood mitigation systems because he believes this flood probably won’t be the last.
“We’re all frustrated at this point, but everything’s fixable. A lot of hard work and perseverance and we’ll get through it,” Boyer said.