Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Tyler Simpkins (left), 16, and his father Russell Simpkins watch as water cascades over the old power dam on Power Dam Road in Franklin County. This is the proposed site for a white-water recreational site by Franklin County Parks and Recreation. Students in Franklin County enjoyed a flood-induced day off from school.

Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Water rushes over the bridge on Mill Lane in Salem. The flood blocked some roads but caused little damage.

Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Larry Hall watches as the Roanoke River swells over the bottom of his back stairs at his home in Elliston off Old Roanoke Road. Hall refused to leave his house because during past flooding people reportedly burglarized his home.

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Bags of sand protect the front entrance of Shawsville Elementary School in Shawsville on Thursday.

Fueled by days of unrelenting rain, rivers and streams across the region rolled out of their beds and ran amok Thursday, barreling over bridges and blocking roads but doing no major harm.

Schools closed in Montgomery and Franklin counties, some Salem residents evacuated their riverside residences, and power temporarily failed in parts of Franklin, Bedford and Roanoke counties.

The three-day downpour, which prompted Gov. Tim Kaine to declare a state of emergency, was born of the turbulent union of a coastal nor'easter and the northbound remnants of Tropical Storm Ida. The odds and ends of Ida are expected to linger around the state today.

The National Weather Service predicted flooding on the Dan River in Danville. The river was expected to crest at more than 26 feet either late Thursday night or this morning, according to the weather service. Meanwhile, wind gusts today could reach 45 mph in Bedford, Franklin and Patrick counties.

At Smith Mountain Lake, Appalachian Power Co. estimated the lake would rise to 3 feet above full pond level Thursday evening, prompting the power company to release extra water from the Leesville Dam into the Staunton River.

While heavy rain in Hampton Roads prompted city governments there to declare local states of emergency and open shelters, communities in Southwest Virginia also coped with the significant rainfall. Between 9 a.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. Thursday, 8.88 inches fell on Poor Mountain in Montgomery County, 6.8 inches at Sloan Branch in Botetourt County, 6 inches at Copper Hill in Floyd County and 9.1 inches at Jones Creek in Henry County.

"It's been a major event," summed up Donato Cacciapaglio, weather service specialist for the National Weather Service in Blacksburg.

In Roanoke, high water temporarily blocked city streets, and the Roanoke River was expected to crest at 11.6 feet -- more than a foot above flood stage -- by midnight Thursday.

Firefighters asked residents of the basement apartments at the oft-flooded Riverwalk at Salem complex (formerly known as Willow River) to evacuate as the Roanoke River rose steadily throughout the day.

While some residents stayed, others left. Among those fleeing was Stuart Ramsey, 25, who packed up two cars with clothes, food, his big screen television and Nintendo Wii.

"I worry, if it starts flooding, people might try to break in," Ramsey said, adding that he and his girlfriend were heading to his mother's house.

By Thursday evening, though, apartment staffers were confident the complex would not be flooded.

In eastern Montgomery County, where county officials closed schools, the North and South forks of the Roanoke River jumped their banks and swamped many secondary roads and bridges.

In Montgomery, some 5.36 inches of rain fell in Lafayette and 3.93 inches in Christiansburg from midnight Tuesday to Thursday afternoon. In Shawsville, the Roanoke River crested at 8 feet -- 3 feet above flood stage -- at lunchtime Thursday and slowly begin to recede, according to the National Weather Service.

Thursday morning, Larry Hall watched as the South Fork of the Roanoke River -- three times its normal width -- engulfed his yard and surrounded the stilts beneath his home on Old Roanoke Road in eastern Montgomery County.

Hall said he had no plans to leave. If he left, Hall said, his home would likely be broken into. It's happened before, he said. "We go through this every time" there's a heavy rain.

"We've seen it worse," added his daughter, Virginia Walden, who had driven from Roanoke with her husband to help her father move his vehicles to higher ground.

Hall, Walden and several others stood next to the house and watched the river rush by Thursday morning. A bridge just past their house that crosses the river and leads to two other homes was covered with so many tree branches and other debris that it was difficult to see.

"At 12 o'clock last night I started hearing logs hit the bridge," Hall said. "Sounded like a car crash or something."

In Franklin County, John Turbyfill, 18, a senior at Franklin County High School, piled out of a minivan in steady rain Thursday morning to take a look at the swollen Pigg River near the Riverside Minute Market on Scuffling Hill Road.

"I've never seen it this high before," said Turbyfill, who was accompanied by other young river gawkers enjoying a flood-related holiday from school.

Nearby, a low-head dam was invisible beneath the muddy Pigg. "There have been logs floating down this thing like crazy," said Mark Johnson, who sometimes fishes the river with his 14-year-old son, Tyler.

The Pigg seemed higher than the Blackwater River, but the latter was boiling along too.

About 11 a.m., the Blackwater's flow was about 6,900 cubic feet per second, according to a flow gauge for the U.S. Geological Survey. The Blackwater's median flow rate for the date, based on 32 years of data, is 80 cubic feet per second.

Staff writers Duncan Adams, Sharla Bardin, Anna L. Mallory and Shawna Morrison contributed to this report.