13 homes evacuated over concerns that Virginia dam may fail

ROANOKE — People living in 13 homes in southwestern Virginia received evacuation orders Thursday because of concerns that a dam may fail from heavy rains.

The homes in southwest Roanoke are near the Spring Valley Lake Dam, which forms the creek-fed lake, the Roanoke Times reported. People living downstream received phone calls from the city early Thursday morning, but Roanoke firefighters also went door to door to inform residents.

An online database maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the dam is made of earth and has a high hazard potential.

The city Stormwater Utility’s online precipitation app said the area has received 7.6 inches of rain since Tuesday.

Trevor Shannon, Roanoke’s battalion chief of emergency management, said during a virtual news conference Thursday that officials followed an emergency action plan for the privately owned structure.

The order to evacuate came during the plan’s third phase, when water in pipes running under the dam reached a level of roughly 12 inches, Shannon said. The pipes are 36 inches in diameter.

Shannon said residents and officials continue to monitor the structure. A dam safety engineer conducted an inspection Thursday morning and was “very confident in how it was holding up and running water through it,” he said.

A 2006 inspection of the dam maintained by a homeowner’s association found that it was in “good condition” overall, according to documents released by Virginia’s Department of Recreation & Conservation. The inspection report also said the embankment of the dam, which was built in 1960, showed no signs of erosion.

The evacuations in Virginia came after rapidly rising water in central Michigan overtook dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people.

Concerns have been growing over dams in the U.S. that are in poor condition and located near homes, businesses and highways. An Associated Press review of federal data and reports obtained under state open records laws identified 1,688 high-hazard dams rated in poor or unsatisfactory condition as of last year in 44 states and Puerto Rico.