ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – For the neighbors on South Park Circle Drive, tropical storm Michael became not the first, but the second blow to their homes.
“It happened in less than six months,” Julie Ritchie, a resident, said.
Ritchie has lived on South Park Circle for 14 years.
“There are a lot of changes going on around the neighborhoods surrounding us. Now all the water that used to go in different directions are suddenly coming our direction,” Ritchie said.
One of those changes includes the construction of two homes near Garst Mill Road.
10 News reached out to George Baron of Baron Enterprises.
“In this area we're using the existing street and we're just building two homes. So there really isn't much runoff than what was already here,” Baron said.
Another neighbor, Chris Kocher has reached out to the county multiple times.
“You know, our storm drains are almost nonexistent,” Kocher said.
Roanoke County said the homes are in the floodplain, a high-risk area prone to flooding.
In a statement the county told 10 News:
"We recognize this is a very difficult situation for so many of our residents as we experienced widespread flooding across the county. Many who were impacted by the Memorial Day weekend flooding experienced it once again last week and even homes with no history of flooding were impacted. in particular, homes in areas such as south park circle that lie within the floodplain that are very vulnerable saw significant flooding following this extreme rain event. County staff members met with a number of citizens following the memorial day flooding event to discuss their concerns about flooding impacts potentially stemming from a new housing development behind south park circle.
"The county staff reviewed the site to ensure it met all of the applicable regulations related to development within the floodplain. Our review, after the Memorial Day event, indicated no interaction between the floodwater and fill related to the recent housing development. This would indicate that the floodwater elevations were not affected by the development. Staff is currently collecting survey data to determine the impacts from the flooding, and exploring programs offered by FEMA that would be beneficial to citizens."
While tropical storm Michael is over, Ritchie said for them it's only the beginning.
“This is probably all going to happen again,” Ritchie said.
Ritchie, Kocher and other neighbors said they plan to present their concerns at next week's board of supervisors' meeting.