Agnes & Camille on the minds of floodwall inspectors
Construction on Richmond’s floodwalls was completed in 1994 but the city has never had to use them to protect the areas it was built to protect. The Floodwall is designed to protect Richmond from floods of up to 32 feet, which would have stopped all of the recorded floods except Tropical Storm Agnes, which hit 36.5 […]
Construction on Richmond’s floodwalls was completed in 1994 but the city has never had to use them to protect the areas it was built to protect.
The Floodwall is designed to protect Richmond from floods of up to 32 feet, which would have stopped all of the recorded floods except Tropical Storm Agnes, which hit 36.5 feet in June 23, 1972. Second worst, flooding reached 30.8 feet on Nov. 7, 1985 and Tropical Storm Camille was the third worst at 28.6 feet on Aug. 22, 1969.
Michael Martz addressed the floodwall recently in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and there is plenty of good floodwall information and details on the 2004 debacle in Shockoe Bottom with Tropical Storm Gaston:
In Richmond, city officials are getting ready for an annual test next month of a floodwall system designed to keep the James River out of Shockoe Bottom and Manchester.
The James never has forced Richmond to close all 19 gates and portals of the floodwall system completed in 1994 and recertified last year by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Two floods in 1996 prompted the city to close some of the gates, including one astride Dock Street, but the big floodgates on either side of Mayo Bridge have not been needed to prevent flooding.
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