Meg Hibbert
Contributing writer
Children started off to school, parents to work and industries and offices opened – until the water began rising.
Five inches of rain from Hurricane Juan and then another six inches on the Nov. 4, 1985, caused Salem and its people to experience a historic flood.
Salem Rescue Squad volunteers pulled on boots, chest waders, life jackets and set out to rescue scores of people on roofs, inside buildings, from mobile home parks, cars and other places during the Flood of ’85.
Last week first responders and former city officials remembered what it was like, during an hour-long presentation at the Salem Museum before a full audience.
There was no flood plain zoning in the city then, and the Rescue Squad didn’t yet have a Swift Water Rescue Team and specialized boats.
Although more than 60 people in Southwest Virginia died, no one in Salem did – but for hours some were missing and unaccounted for.
One of those missing for several agonized was Rescue Squad member Joe Cunningham, who though was unable to attend the Nov. 13 panel sent a message. “It was a tragic beginning and a surprise happy ending,” wrote Cunningham, who at the time could not swim.
First and second floors flooded at Willow River Apartments on the Roanoke River off Rt. 419. Ramey’s Mobile Home Park, Salem Mobile Home Park and others had floating trailers and vehicles.
Panel members were Retired Fire and EMS officer Tom Roseberry, then Civic Center Director and Rescue Squad member Carey Harveycutter, current Rescue Squad volunteer Ken Cook, Mike Moore, Harold Weikle Jr., Eddie Hite and Randy Smith, who was assistant city manager and also Emergency Services Coordinator for the city.
“The most important thing for y’all to know is these people served and did this out of honor and pride and didn’t expect anything from it,” Roseberry said.
Although the city had an elaborate flood plan, Smith said, “The water came up so fast and got here before the equipment did.” “Storm drains couldn’t carry the five inches of rain on the day of the flood.”
Although the river has been widened, many buildings in the flood plain have been removed and the city is more prepared than in 1985, “A flood can happen again,” Smith added. “I pray we never see a flood like that again.”
The Salem Civic Center became an emergency housing and feeding center for a week and one day, serving three meals a day, Harveycutter said. “The Salvation Army served dinner to 300-500 people for a week.”
“We had three days of food, beepers and portable radios. There were no cell phones then,” Harveycutter said. ““Volunteers couldn’t get to the Rescue Squad, which was behind Fire Station No. 1 then, so had to find other ways. The Red Cross couldn’t get to us.”
“Roanoke County Schools dumped school kids at the Civic Center because they couldn’t get them home when schools closed,” Harveycutter remembered.
There were other challenges. When Rescue Squad responders couldn’t get to LewisGale because of flood waters, they took patients to the Virginia Veterans Medical Center instead, he said.
That Nov. 4 was also election day. “The one good thing was every precinct opened on time, and in the proper location,” according to Harveycutter.
Rescue Squad member Mike Moore remembered responding at 7:30 that morning to a car stranded in muddy waters on West Main Street at Wildwood Road. The passengers and driver were out. Going east, “Water was running through the showroom at the Buick dealership on West Main,” Moore remembered.
He and three or four partners spent most of the day rescuing other people. “We didn’t have Swift Water Rescue boats then, just what were fishing boats. We tied a boat to a telephone pole on McClellan Street and went house to house to rescue people,” Moore recalled.
Weikle, who was then a captain in the rescue squad, said “What we were taught in our training was ‘Training will get you through anything.’ We learned, ‘No, it won’t.’ ”
Although he and his partner for the day couldn’t swim, at Salem Mobile Home Park they tied ropes around themselves to reach people.
“We saw Joe Cunningham in the water and going under the railroad track. We thought he was lost. Later he walked out of the creek,” Weikle said.
Even rescue helicopters had difficulties. LifeGuard 10 had a tire tied to the bottom in order to do rescues, Weikle remembered. Roseberry said LifeGuard 10 dropped rescuers off on top of quonset huts on Kessler Mill Road.
“The helicopter hovered four feet over the buildings and I and my partner went down into the buildings and brought people out by ladders.” He said helicopter rescues went on for eight days.
Rescue Squad members Bobby Wilcox and Richie Bolton were hanging on in trees for 10 hours, Roseberry remembered. It was almost dark when they were rescued.
The two were in a photograph that was printed on the front page of a newspaper in Paris, France, Roseberry said.
Ken Cook, who has been in the Salem Rescue Squad for almost 50 years, remembered having been a member for only two months in 1985. “Valerie Raimey, the dispatcher, was the most calm voice of the whole day,” he recalled.
One man rescued from his truck where water was over the muffler was clutching a little box on his chest, Cook said. “When rescuers tried to take it, he refused, saying ‘This is all I have left.’ ”
Because Roanoke City Fire Department was having a funeral for two of its own that day who had been killed by a drunk driver, when Salem called for help, “The message we got was ‘You’re on your own,’ ” Cook remembered.
Since then mutual aid agreements among all the valley’s fire and rescue have helped, he said.
“It was a very long week after that day. There were many cardiac arrests because of the stress of all that was going on,” Cook said.
Although Salem had no Swift Water Rescue team and equipment at the time, today the squad’s team has been recognized nationally, he added.
Cook said the city’s phones went down, and he couldn’t get back to his home on 12 O’Clock Knob for two days.
Roseberry added communication was difficult “because there were so many people talking on the radio it was hard to communicate.”
A number of children who lived in the nearby trailer park stayed inside until their parents could get them at East Salem Elementary School where Roseberry’s wife, Ann, taught kindergarten. Some of those trailers were floating past.
He sent a message for her to stay at the school. Meanwhile no one knew where Roseberry was because he had dropped his radio in the river.
He said a dangerous situation was avoided at Graham White foundry on Colorado Street at the river “because water started coming down the factory floor. There was molten metal, and guys had to empty the molten metal out to prevent a massive explosion, he said.
“Looking around at other panel members, Roseberry said, “These guys are all heroes.” The audience gave them a standing ovation.
