Like other Southwest Virginians who live near creeks, Elsie and Fred Anderson enjoy the gurgling water whenever the sun shines, but they worry about flash flooding when storm clouds open up.

Twenty years ago, they worried a lot during a November 1985 storm that saturated the Roanoke Valley and spilled its waterways in the worst flood in Roanoke's history.

"You never know what's going to happen with the creek," said Elsie Anderson, whose family has lived for more than 40 years beside flood-prone Cravens Creek in Southwest Roanoke. "You have to be prepared to get out fast."

Mother Nature, gravity and construction growth conspire against the Roanoke Valley when it comes to flooding. The area's bowl shape, mountainous terrain, many creeks and suburban growth can send torrents downstream whenever big -- and sometimes even little -- rainstorms blow through.

Twenty years after the 1985 flood caused death and destruction in the Roanoke Valley, the region has recovered and taken many flood-control precautions, but it also has covered much of its open space with rooftops and pavement, creating millions of gallons of storm water runoff that used to be absorbed slowly by the ground, vegetation, aquifer and creeks.

Since the 1985 flood, the Roanoke Valley has grown more slowly than sprawl-plagued Northern Virginia, but the loss of permeable ground in and around the Star City has forced it to more aggressively confront the issue of flooding.

"Development anywhere in a watershed increases runoff," said Matt Miller, director of information services for the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission. "You have to prepare for that or you're in trouble."

Today, despite the challenges of geography and growth, the Roanoke Valley is better prepared to handle rainstorms thanks to improved flood-plain regulations, better storm water management and lessons learned from the 1985 flood, according to building, planning, zoning and engineering officials in Roanoke, Roanoke County, Salem and Vinton.

Still, authorities acknowledge that a downpour like the 1985 storm would overwhelm the valley's flood defenses, especially in Roanoke.

"Every cornfield that's turned into houses or a shopping center upstream, the [storm water] runoff's coming our way," said Brian Townsend, director of the city's planning, building and economic development department.

Managing Mother Nature

Like many U.S. communities, Roanoke and its surrounding localities have taken steps to limit property damage and lives lost from severe floodwaters. That's being done, in part, by reducing the number of houses and other structures in flood zones or raising them above extreme flood levels. Since 1985, Roanoke, Roanoke County, Salem and Vinton have bought and demolished scores of houses in the floodway, leaving grassy areas free to absorb rainfall and floodwaters.

The localities also have taken steps to reduce flooding from routine rainstorms. Such measures range from the simple clearing of debris from drainage ditches to the $65 million widening of the Roanoke River's channel and building of riverside berms.

Despite those measures, some people question whether the Roanoke Valley has done enough about flooding.

In the low-lying Cravens Creek Road area of the Deyerle neighborhood -- which used to be farmland and horse pastures -- the flood-prone Cravens Creek, which also is known as Barnhardt Creek, rose quickly during the 1985 storm. Some residents were nearly trapped by flash flooding, which came up in minutes.

"It was the scariest thing," Elsie Anderson said. "We were completely surrounded by water."

Afterward, the Deyerle residents tried to persuade city authorities to stop development upstream or take stronger flood-control measures on upstream construction. They say their concerns were ignored and that new houses, businesses and schools upstream have contributed to flooding problems since then. A storm last fall caused higher flood levels than the 1985 flood.

"We're like Noah's Ark sitting here" waiting for floodwaters to rise, Anderson said. "They've built up all around us through the years, and common sense tells you water goes downhill."

Since 1985, the Roanoke Valley's open spaces that have been covered with impermeable surfaces -- houses, businesses, industries, shopping malls, parking lots, driveways, streets, sidewalks -- have created homes, jobs, tax revenue and other benefits, but they also have boosted storm water runoff.

Single-family houses and other small structures aren't required to control their storm water, but larger residential, commercial and industrial developments, such as the Valley View Mall area, must have retention ponds and other features designed to reduce erosion and to hold the increased amount of storm water so that it gradually releases into the waterways at the same rate as before construction.

For the Roanoke Valley, the immediate area of flood concern extends from eastern Montgomery County to southern Botetourt County, where housing developments have popped up.

Roanoke County and Salem's western area also have added residential, commercial and industrial developments, sending even more water downstream. Roanoke, Vinton and Salem, the valley's urban centers, were mostly built out by 1985.

Local authorities are committed to protecting people and property from flooding and to reducing flood insurance rates, said George Simpson, assistant director of Roanoke County's community development department.

As a result of federal regulations since the 1970s, the Roanoke Valley has similar flood-plain rules as other localities nationwide. Those rules focus on prohibiting new construction and restricting redevelopment in flood-prone areas and demolishing, moving, elevating or flood-proofing hundreds of structures in flood zones, said Charles Aldridge, Salem's building and zoning administrator.

Since 1985, Roanoke Valley communities have created a regional storm-water management plan and updated their flood-plain ordinances, storm water management requirements, erosion and sediment control regulations and disaster preparedness plans.

In 1998, the Federal Emergency Management Agency selected the Roanoke Valley as the first community in Virginia for Project Impact, a federally funded disaster mitigation program. Project Impact created a regional storm-water management plan and identified 138 flood-control projects that would cost the valley $66 million to complete. Some of the recommendations have been completed.

Among other flood measures:

n Localities are participating in the National Flood Insurance Program, which lets their homeowners get federally backed flood insurance, and are trying to lower their flood premiums, said Anita McMillan, Vinton's director of planning and zoning.

n Greenways are being created along the river and creeks to help storm water absorb into the ground. Localities also are promoting public awareness of flood risks.

n The Western Virginia Water Authority is upgrading the storm-drainage system and installing flood-control berms at the regional sewer plant in Southeast Roanoke.

n Roanoke is trying to restore its dwindling tree canopy, and the U.S. Forest Service is protecting stream sides from logging in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, both of which will slow runoff and erosion that fills waterways with sediment and makes them more flood-prone.

n Localities also are encouraging low-impact, mixed-use development with smaller parking lots, permeable pavers and recycled rainwater for landscaping.

n Localities have built retention basins to protect homes and schools and prepared thousands of flood elevation certificates to help property owners secure loans and insurance. Undersized storm water pipes and low bridges are being identified.

Authorities say their combined efforts should prevent most regular flooding, reduce property damage and loss of life and lower flood stages in Roanoke by 1 to 3 feet.

But they caution that nothing will stop flooding from a devastating storm like the 1985 one. Officials said it would be unaffordable and impractical to design streets, buildings and other infrastructure to be able to cope with a 100-year flood.

"On the whole, the city is much more prepared now," said Phil Schirmer, Roanoke's city engineer, "but if we had the same scenario as in 1985, we would get similar results" in high-water marks.

Future concerns

Much of the development in the Roanoke Valley since 1985 has not prompted public concern about flooding, but some projects have raised eyebrows. Those include the proposed renovation of aging Victory Stadium and the creation of the Carilion Health System's office and laboratory complex, both of which are in the Roanoke River floodway. Carilion's facility will have parking at ground level; the first occupied floor will be above that.

Two other projects -- the Slate Hill office complex along U.S. 220 and the Ukrop's grocery store along Franklin Road -- illustrate how developers and local governments are trying to balance economic development with flood risks.

Slate Hill is being built on a steep hillside that has been stripped of trees above the flood-prone Ore Branch. Farther downstream, Ore Branch is being routed directly underneath the Ukrop's grocery store.

Authorities said they're closely watching both developments. Slate Hill has been cited for several small flood-related violations but no major ones, Simpson said.

Authorities said regional cooperation on flooding has improved, but Roanoke officials said there's room for improvement. They want to create a regional storm water utility in which all upstream communities -- whose new developments mean more water heading downstream -- would impose a "rain tax" to pay for storm water system upgrades.

"We're the drain in the bathtub in the Roanoke River basin," Schirmer said. "It all kind of descends on us. There needs to be a better regional approach."

For the residents of flood-prone areas, such an approach can't come soon enough. Don Bryant, 70, was born in the Cravens Creek Road house where he still lives with his wife, Mary.

Bryant's family years ago sold off much of their farmland, where several neighbors' houses are now scattered, but he still enjoys living beside the creek.

Its cool waters run through his life. As a boy, he swam and chased minnows in them. As a young man, he made a few dollars by selling sand he pulled from the creek bottom with a horse-drawn scoop. Today, he irrigates his big garden of potatoes and peppers with creek water.

His old farmhouse sits on a knoll alongside the little creek and has never flooded, but he knows the creek's power and precarious nature as it meanders snake-like from a mountain orchard spring until it empties into the Roanoke River.

With each big storm -- and with each new development upstream -- he said the creek changes slightly, widening here, narrowing there, deepening in places, shallowing out in others, as the current, gravel and silt come downstream.

Today, a power pole that used to stand near the bank stands in the middle of the creek after floodwaters last fall caused the creek channel to change course by several yards. A utility crew is putting in a new pole on slightly higher ground closer to Bryant's house.

"A creek's a hard thing to do anything with," he said. "It's got its own way of doing things. You put in all that concrete and asphalt and the land can't absorb the rain. We told them, but city hall and the developers aren't going to stop -- money talks.

"They can't control Mother Nature. Nobody can."