On October 18, officials from the City of Radford, the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Forecast Office in Blacksburg, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) unveiled a marker identifying the record flood level for the New River in Radford. In August 1940, a category 1 hurricane (hurricanes were not named at that time) came ashore along the Georgia-South Carolina border and tracked inland to the Appalachians. The storm produced extremely heavy rainfall, including over 17 inches in the watershed of Little River (a New River tributary) in Floyd County. This rainfall resulted in the highest New River levels ever recorded at Radford: 35 feet 11.5 inches, or about 22 feet above what is now considered flood stage. The marker unveiled on October 18 at Radford was donated by Anthony Phillips, currently a hydrometeorologist at Ball State University in Indiana, and a former Virginia Tech student and intern at the NWS office in Blacksburg. The Radford marker is one of the first in Virginia for the NWS’ and USGS’ High Water Mark Sign project, which aims to increase communities’ awareness of flooding history and potential. Information about the High Water Mark Sign Project is available at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/water/high_water.
Photos: (top) The Radford/New River high-water mark sign in Radford’s Bissett Park is unveiled by Anthony Phillips (center right), who donated the sign, and Dave Wert (center left), meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service Office in Blacksburg. (Bottom) Detail of the high-water mark sign at Radford.
