Nelson County, Virginia
As we told you in this post a few days ago, the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) was closed in its entirety due to damage, primarily in North Carolina from Helene.
The National Park Service announced Thursday, that portions of the BRP will open Friday morning.
This is excellent news for people and businesses along the parkway here in Nelson during the upcoming peak fall colors within the next two to three weeks!
Nelson County and Central Virginia
Blue Ridge Parkway
By now most everyone knows about the destruction from Hurricane Helene in the North Carolina mountains and other parts of the region. Because of that catastrophic damage the National Park Service (NPS) has closed the entirety of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This includes all of the northern portion that goes through Amherst and Nelson County where it meets Skyline Drive. Skyline is open.
Though the parkway itself is closed and gated off at most crossovers, you can still go over the parkway along state roads that cross, such as Reeds Gap shown above.
“In the coming weeks, the assessment teams will utilize the data from their inspections to determine the full extent of the damage including the timeline and cost estimates for repairs. A projected reopening date of any section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina has not yet been established. In Virginia, damage assessments and the clearing of debris from the road are nearing completion, which will for allow a phased reopening in Virginia in the coming days to weeks,” the NPS said in an October 5th update.
To monitor updated information from the NPS about the Blue Ridge Parkway, click here.
Nelson County, Virginia
For the second time in a week heavy rains have created flooding across the area causing some schools to once again cancel classes. We told you (here) late last week about the first round.
Above are just two of several school systems that closed Monday due to the weather. Here’s a broader list of closings from WHSV in Harrisonburg.
In addition to the Route 29 being blocked (above) earlier this morning, Rockfish River Road near Rock Spring Road has washed out. There are also two sinkholes that have formed on Rockfish River Road near Laurel Springs Road. Greenfield Road in Afton was reportedly under water just before daylight Monday.
Numerous Flood Watches continue across the area on Monday. Click here to see a map of current watches and warnings.
The good news, after some rain lingering into Tuesday we begin to see all of this and what’s left of Helene move out of here by Tuesday night.
Wednesday looks sunny and dry as we head into the first few days of October, a welcome relief!
Tommy
Nelson County, Virginia
Heavy rain and thunderstorms moved across the area late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. As much as 3-5 inches fell in certain parts of the county. The heavy rains on already saturated ground from the past several days caused a big mess in certain places.
Due to the hazardous road conditions Nelson County Public Schools made the decision to close for Thursday.
Other parts of the county that experienced flooded roads and other issues included Gladstone and on 29 North in faber near Irish Road (Route 6 East).
More, sometimes heavy, rain is expected on Friday.
Wintergreen / Devils Knob
Nelson County, Virginia
We told you about the rounds of severe weather that moved through the area Saturday night in this post.
In spite of the trees and power lines blown down, there was a reprieve between the line of storms moving through. John Taylor up at Wintergreen on Devils Knob was able to grab this fantastic photo from up top looking down into the Rockfish Valley.
Nice to see with all of the storms we had around Saturday evening!
Nelson County, Virginia
Update : 9.22.24 / 5:15 AM
Less than 100 CVEC customers were still without power.
Original post below:
Shortly before 6 o’clock Saturday night, severe storms started moving into the area from the northwest. The first round caused numerous power outages and according to Central Virginia Electric some power poles in Tyro were also broken causing a delay in power restoration.
More updates as they are available.
Nelson County, Virginia
Last week we mistakenly thought we’d solved the mystery of the military style helicopters flying low over Nelson and other nearby counties. Here’s a link to that post.
Today on Monday we were sent an email from the US Geological Service saying, nope that’s not our guys.
“Hi Tommy ,
About your post on Thursday: The two helicopters USGS contractors use for Earth MRI to scope out new sources of critical minerals (including deposits in mine waste), map aquifers, fault lines and radon deposits, and better understand fundamental geology – are very far away from the Blue Ridge at the moment. When we checked Friday they were both in Idaho. And if you look at the photo of our contractor’s helicopter in the release you linked to, it has a boom sticking out of it (to detect those deposits!), unlike the helicopter in the video.
Many thanks,
Seth
Seth Amgott
Office of Communications and Publishing
U.S. Geological Survey
Reston, VA
So just who was flying around last week? The short answer, we don’t know. We have been told everything from DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) to military exercises. But none of those are confirmed by anyone.
We do greatly appreciate Seth with USGS setting the record straight, so the mystery continues!
Nelson County, Virginia
This story has been updated to reflect corrections. Apparently the helicopters seen on September 12, 2024 over Nelson were not USGS.
Here’s a link to the updated story.
To say our inbox and messaging has been blowing up Thursday afternoon would be an understatement. People were sending us photos and videos of a low flying, military style helicopter over Afton and some other parts of the county.
Be sure and click through (above on the Facebook logo – lower right) and read the comments on Facebook page.
We checked with Nelson County Sheriff Mark Embrey to see if a search was ongoing or smething similar. The sheriff told us no.
After lots of checking and Facebook commenter, Travis Wheeler on our page, we have the answer.
On their site in the release they say, “Low-level airplane and helicopter flights are planned over broad regions of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia to image geology using airborne geophysical technology. The airborne survey will be conducted from August of 2024 for approximately one year, weather and wildfire restrictions permitting.
The survey is being coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey with the goal of providing images that expand the fundamental knowledge of geology across the region.
The survey will help map rocks and minerals at the surface across vast regions that may have limited outcrop due to vegetation and unconsolidated rock cover. It will also help map subsurface geology, where some rocks can be located hundred to thousands of meters (more than 3280 feet) below the surface based on their magnetic signature. Such mapping can improve the understanding of the geologic framework within which the potential mineral resource may occur.
The new geophysical data will be processed to develop high-resolution three-dimensional representations of bedrock composition and structure to depths more than 3,280 feet (1 kilometer) below the surface.”
So that’s what folks are seeing!
Here’s a link to the complete release.
Luray, Virginia
The Blue Ridge Montañitas Festival is a first-of-its-kind music festival, a vibrant celebration of music, culture, and community set against the backdrop of the breathtaking mountainous views of Luray, in the heart of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The festival is scheduled to take place September 28, 2024, from 11 am – 7 pm, and will bring together a dynamic lineup of musicians and dancers, along with educational programming, for an unforgettable experience that highlights the unique spirit of the Latine and Appalachian community.
The festival is part of the larger Montañitas Reimagined project, a collaboration between Estela Diaz Knott from the Lua Project, the Luray Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 621, and Dr. Amy Price-Azano, Director of the Virginia Tech Center for Rural Education, to reimagine Appalachia as a shared and co-created space with, by, and alongside Latine communities. In addition to the festival, the project – funded by Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia (a Mellon Foundation sponsored grant project) – will create an interdisciplinary place-based community curriculum and a digital album so that a more nuanced and complex story of the region can be shared locally, regionally, and beyond.
The Blue Ridge Montañitas Festival aims to create a harmonious blend of Latin American and Appalachian expression, inspired by the lived experiences of Montañitas co-founders Knott and Price-Azano who grew up together in Luray and shared a vision for a festival and monument that would showcase the rich tapestry of cultural influences in this region of Appalachia. “People often think of rural communities, especially in Appalachia, as white, monolingual, monolithic spaces when, in reality, they are wonderfully diverse,” said Price-Azano. “We areexcited to share the culture, language, music, food, art, and dance from Appalachians with Latine heritage who make up the core and fabric of the Shenandoah Valley.”
The festival will take place at the VFW Comer-Jones Post 621 in Luray, where a core group of veterans and auxiliary members have been instrumental as community partners in planning the event. The festival co-founders have deep ties to the VFW. Price-Azano recalls fond memoriesof her childhood, growing up and playing on the grounds of the VFW where her father, a veteran and officer at the Post, would go and volunteer his time. And for Knott, the VFW post is the spot where over 40 years ago, her mother Lupe, who was the first permanent Mexican resident of Luray, hosted Fiestas to share her Mexican culture— the food, music, and dance, with the local community.
“When I was growing up, my mother did everything she could to engage our community in learning about and participating in the joyous traditions of Mexican culture. As more Latin American people began to settle in the Valley, my mother became the go-to person, serving as the town’s local interpreter, and she has done that for over 50 years,” explained Knott. “The Fiestas at the VFW are one of my fondest memories of being a kid so with the Blue Ridge Montañitas Festival, we are renewing that gesture but with stories, songs, and foodways from the whole Shenandoah Valley, and from the richer, more complex “Appalachiano” community that lives here today.”
Lupe Knott is very excited that her family and local community are re-kindling the festival she started so many years ago. As she says, “I am just flabbergasted that Amy, who was one of the first kids who participated in the community fiestas, when she and Estela were in elementary school, was so moved by her experiences that she connected with Estela to work on reviving the fiesta and making it a part of a school curriculum. With all my years teaching about Mexican culture, I just never imagined that the kids would care so much about it that they would want to do something this special.” Knott and Price-Azano agree that education is a key component of this work. As Lupe explains, “You just never know when you’re teaching kids, what they will absorb. It’s beautiful to me to know how sharing my culture with kids like Amy, who grew up with European Appalachian roots, has impacted them. My community is going to really enjoy it. There are many more Latino people here now and they are really going to enjoy it!”
Attendees can expect a carefully curated selection of performances with energetic traditional dances from the Shenandoah Valley Cloggers and Villa Sabrosa Dance troupe; various musical genres, including old time, Norteño, Ranchera, Son Jarocho, latin Popular music and Country.
The festival will include Lua Project’s signature Mexilachian music, which features a beguilingblend of instrumental and vocal timbres, including the banjo and fiddle of traditional Appalachian fiddle music, with the jarana and requinto of Veracruz, layered with accordion, zapateado, and South American percussion sounds. In addition to the musical performances, the festival will feature a variety of cultural, artistic, and food-oriented workshops. There will be a Mexican art workshop hosted by the talented Mexican-American artist Marissa Kalo, a side-by-side demonstration of tamales, presented by Maria Peralta, along with traditional biscuits and gravy, taught by Sue Price, who is Azano’s mother.
Participants will be able to taste the delicious results. There will also be a panel discussion of veterans, sharing their experiences, and two dance workshops, one of traditional Appalachian clogging, led by Deloris Judy, and a ballet folkloric workshop, led by Stephanie Castro.
The festival entry and parking are free, and all are encouraged to attend. For more information, follow the Montañitas Reimagined project on Instagram at @montanitasproject and Facebook to learn more about the musicians, artists, activities, and other exciting announcements leading up to the festival.
About MAAV
Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia is based in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech and is part of a $250 million initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation. The Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project began in 2020 to support public projects that reimagine commemorative spaces and transform the way history is told in the United States. MAAV is led by Dr. Emily Satterwhite of Virginia Tech’s Appalachian Studies Program and Dr. Katrina Powell of Virginia Tech’s Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies.
MAAV is proud to enable, support, and reward meaningful and extensive university-community collaborations. Through these collaborations, MAAV works to ensure greater participation in decision-making and governance by community partners. They are committed to collective, reflexive, and reciprocal working relationships through which new projects develop in coordination with organizations, constituents, stakeholders, and designers. Montañitas Reimagined is one of nine MAAV Projects. To learn more about those projects please visit www.moremountainstories.org.
Nellysford
Nelson County, Virginia
The year was 1924. A plaque in the church says, “AFTER MANY YEARS OF TRAVELING 1-2 HOURS BY HORSE AND BUGGY TO CHURCH, A COMMITTEE, LEAD BY J.T. PHILLIPS, WAS FORMED AND IN 1924 ROCKFISH VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH WAS ORGANIZED.” That’s how Rockfish Valley Baptist Church, right off of Route 151 in Nellysford got its start!
Sarah LaFleur is a former member of RVBC now living in Dyer, Virginia. She remembers her early days at the church. “In a time before electricity had reached the Valley, every stone used in the construction of this church was gathered by hand from the fields of its original members and carted by wagon down mountain roads to build this now historic edifice. What a joy to celebrate 100 years of Rockfish Valley Baptist Church. Our very first church that our family was a part of, where I was baptized, and where all my children had their first taste of corporate worship. While home is no longer in the Blue Ridge, Rockfish Valley Church will always feel like home.”
The 100 year celebration took place in late August to commemorate a century of the church’s existence.
In addition to celebrating 100 years, Sarah LaFleur the former member mentioned above, submitted many photos from the early days of church.
To learn more about Rockfish Valley Baptist Church, you can visit them on their Facebook page by clicking here.
Happy 100 RVBC!
