Farmers Welcome Rain, But Drought Concerns Persist
The remnants of Hurricane Isaias dumped heavy rain to Rockbridge County over the weekend, downing trees and creating some minor flooding.
Isaias made landfall along the Florida Panhandle on the evening of Friday, Oct. 9, as a Category 2 storm before moving up the East Coast.
Strong winds and rain across Rockbridge County Saturday night into Sunday left some people without power and downed several trees across roads.
In Buena Vista, a large tree fell across the 2400 block of Old Buena Vista Road Sunday night, blocking traffic. The tree had been removed by Virginia Department of Transportation crews by Monday morning.
Several other trees fell across roads in Buena Vista as well as in Goshen, Natural Bridge and Brownsburg and Lexington.
The tunnel at Culvert Road in Buena Vista flooded Sunday, also temporarily blocking traffic.
Rockbridge County Fire Chief Nathan Ramsey said overall, the county didn’t see significant storm damage, just heavy rain.
According to the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, much of the county got 2 inches of rain or more over a three-day span. Lexington recorded nearly 4 inches. Rockbridge Baths recorded nearly 3 and Fairfield recorded more than 2 inches.
On social media, people across the county reported higher rain totals.
Jeb and Lexi Byers said they measured at least 6 inches on two different garden rain gauges at their home along South River near Mountain View Elementary School.
“I thought, ‘This can’t be right.’ I poured one out and we got another inch and three quarters,” Jeb Byers said.
The Maury River was so high at the Ben Salem Wayside on Monday that most of the river’s familiar rocks were underwater. The river was up a little more than 3 feet above normal in the area Sunday night, according the NWS.
The rain was a welcome reprieve for local farmers, who have been struggling with drought conditions for months.
Some who gathered for an educational meeting about the drought at the Shenandoah Valley Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Raphine on Monday said they measured up to 4 inches of rain over the weekend. But they said they are still struggling with drought conditions that have depleted their hay stores and grazing grass.
John Benner, the animal science Extension agent for Augusta, Rockingham, and Rockbridge counties, said the year’s first cutting of hay was under the typical yearly yield by 35 to 50 percent.
Many Rockbridge County farmers have had to import hay from out of state to feed their livestock or stretch their existing stores.
“I’m feeding square bales right now,” Ken Mohler said. “The problem is that instead of us making four or five (hay) bales and acre, we’re making one bale an acre.”
Mohler said he was happy to get the 4 inches of rain he saw at his farm, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the incredibly dry weather the last few months.
“We hadn’t got 4 inches all summer,” Mohler said.
Most of Rockbridge County remains in a moderate drought while parts of the far southeast corner of the country remain in a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Benner said the weekend’s rain will help a bit, but it won’t be able to make up for a months-long deficit.
“I think overall, from the picture of the drought through this year, we’re still enough of a deficit that it’s not going to be as impactful as it otherwise could be,” Benner said. “It definitely was helpful, but not quite enough to get us out of trouble.”
