After “catastrophic” flooding, residents of Windsor Woods press Virginia Beach for help

Oct. 14--VIRGINIA BEACH

When Hurricane Matthew dumped more than a foot of rain on the city last weekend, Sherry and Mike Pitts lost two cars to flood damage and had several inches of water in their garage.

But it could have been worse. And for a lot of their neighbors in Windsor Woods, it was.

Dozens of frustrated residents from the large neighborhood near Mount Trashmore showed up Thursday night for a meeting with city officials that had been scheduled months earlier to discuss drainage problems. They demanded assistance and aired pent-up frustration from decades of dealing with flooding in the area.

Residents accused the city of neglecting drainage projects in the neighborhood for decades and squandering their tax money. Many yelled at city staff members, some coming close to tears or cursing.

More than 250 homes in Windsor Woods flooded last weekend, and 85 percent of them had no insurance coverage because the neighborhood isn't in a flood zone, according to City Manager Dave Hansen.

"You're in a very, very difficult and what I might call catastrophic position," Hansen said at the meeting.

City staff intended to brief residents on a $3 million dredging project that will begin in the spring. The aim is to clean out large drainage canals that water is supposed to flow through on its way out of the neighborhood.

After the dredging, the city plans to inspect and replace old pipes. Several Virginia Beach officials, including Hansen, said the system of pipes in the neighborhood is insufficient to handle the amount of water dumped by major storms.

The permanent solution would involve spending $50 million to build a pump station and install gates to limit the impact of tides on the canal system in Windsor Woods. That project is not funded, but Hansen committed to including it in the next year's budget.

The city has completed more than $67 million worth of targeted, smaller drainage improvements in Windsor Woods since the early 1990s. But even the pump station and tidal gates probably wouldn't have held back the water this time, Hansen said.

"There's nothing that would have prevented this flood," he said.

Two weeks earlier, a four-day deluge dumped about 13 inches of rain on the city. The cumulative impact of the back-to-back storms, Hansen said, would have overwhelmed any stormwater system.

Meanwhile, residents are dealing with the immediate crisis. Some have been been staying in motels as they try to find money to clean and repair their homes. Throughout the neighborhood, entire contents of homes sit on the curb, water-damaged.

"I'm not really interested in the projects," said resident Sharon Branch. "I want to know what we can do right now. There are so many people in this room that are hurting."

Gov. Terry McAuliffe toured Windsor Woods earlier the same day with Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives. The state and the city are collecting information to get a presidential declaration of disaster, which would open access to federal assistance.

"There's a lot of frustration," Hansen said. "I understand how devastating this is."

Until the city hears back from the federal government, Hansen said, residents should do what they can.

"You got to pull together as a community," he said. "You've got to help each other, you've got to get the barbecue out, you've got to hug each other."

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