What happened to cause the flood

November 4, 2025, marks 40 years since the historic flood of 1985.

We had several days of rainfall leading to the main event. Then the remnants of Hurricane Juan pushed north into our area. The storm stalled and dumped heavy amounts of rainfall across our area.

The ground was already super-saturated when Juan arrived, and the soil just couldn’t absorb any more water, so the rainwater ran off into rivers and streams, causing rivers to rise to record-breaking levels in a short period of time.

It wasn’t long before the Roanoke River reached a record high crest of 23.55 feet, over 13 feet above flood stage. Downtown Roanoke was under about 3-4 feet of water at the peak of the event. Over 3,100 businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed and 62 people los

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