WAVERLY, Va. β Heavy rain soaked Virginia on Saturday, breaking a daily rainfall record at Richmond International Airport and dumping up to 6 inches in some areas, leaving residents in Waverly dealing with unprecedented flooding.
Leverette Pope spent Monday morning in his yard, cleaning up after Saturday's storm.
Pope has lived in Waverly for more than 50 years and thought he'd seen it all, but Saturday's rain storm surprised him.
As the rain started pouring down, Pope looked out his front window where the storm turned the ditch outside his home into a river.
"It's just unbelievable, the amount of water that are through here Saturday, unbelievable. I've never seen it like this," Pope said.
As Saturday's rain kept falling, the water kept rising throughout the town.
"The intensity Saturday afternoon was incredible for a couple of hours. I've never seen it rain that hard," Waverly Town Council President Franklin Cox said. "From down a couple blocks down there as far as you could see, this road was under water. I've never seen that before," Cox said.
At the height of the storm, Patricia Miller watched the water closing in towards her house.
"Probably 6 or 8 feet from the edge of the street all into the yard but the street was totally covered, so I've never seen the street totally covered," Miller said.
Downtown, the flood waters made their way into the Waverly Post Office.
"I've been here 9 years and I've never seen that much rain in such a short period of time," Waverly Mayor Angela McPhaul said.
McPhaul says just last week she met with Sussex County officials to talk about flooding concerns, which included a ditch the length of the town that needed to be cleaned out.
"They already got a plan in action and who we're going to get in touch with and hopefully get a grant to help the flooding that was super evident this weekend," McPhaul said.
The county will work on a grant proposal and if successful will use the money to help mitigate drainage issues in the town.
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