The 2024 flood that ripped through Damascus and caused widespread damage that ground the outdoor tourism hub to a halt that September mirrored one that devastated the town nearly half a century earlier.
In 1977, a high-water event led to flooding and destruction along Beaverdam Creek on the west side of town. After the cleanup, homes were relocated, property owners were bought out and the space around the waterway was converted to a park in an effort to avoid future flooding. A berm was created along the edge of the creek to raise the bank, said Chris Bell, Damascus town manager.
“Those were effective measures and after Helene, ultimately kept the water inside Beaverdam Creek,” Bell said.
But Laurel Creek, which runs along the east side of the town, did not receive the same treatment as Beaverdam Creek.
And when Hurricane Helene brought a deluge to the town, campers, RVs and mobile homes that were alongside Laurel Creek were swept downstream. Those structures traveled swiftly along the swollen waterway until they hit a bridge, creating a makeshift dam, much like what happened during the 1977 event across town.
“Laurel Creek, instead of flowing under the bridge, took a hard left and aimed right towards downtown,” Bell said. “This time around it flooded our entire downtown corridor.”
Damascus has been resilient in the face of Helene. A tourist destination for outdoor enthusiasts, its economy relies on hikers and cyclists visiting the region. Bell said shops, restaurants and other businesses worked hard to reopen their doors in time to welcome back visitors in the spring and summer after the storm hit. Regardless of that resiliency, Damascus became determined to take steps to avoid another destructive flood.
The town applied for grants through the Community Flood Preparedness Fund, a program operated by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation funded by proceeds to the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
The fund aims to provide money for projects in regions, localities, and to tribes to reduce the impacts of flooding, according to the Virginia Conservation Network. But applying for the grants, the approval process and the payout can be lengthy and the weather won’t wait.
Millions of dollars have been appropriated to localities in Southwest Virginia since the Community Flood Preparedness Fund was established in 2020. Much of that money has gone toward creating flood resilience plans. Many of the localities haven’t moved beyond planning toward breaking ground on flood mitigation infrastructure projects.
Use the top left icon on the map below to navigate to a list of projects across our region and how much money they have received.
What is a “resilience plan” and why is it necessary to receive CFPF funds?
Grants through the CFPF program to put together a resilience plan have ranged from tens of thousands of dollars to over $100,000. Some localities have opted to hire consulting firms for the project, or other dedicated staff.
The city of Roanoke, for example, received a $135,000 grant through the CFPF’s second round of funding to hire a consultant familiar with the city and its challenges to come up with the city’s plan. Since then, Roanoke was greenlit for millions of dollars in subsequent CFPF rounds to fund projects including drainage improvements, flood plain restoration, watershed modeling and the purchase of properties in flood-prone areas for the sake of demolition and land restoration.
Resilience plans are required ahead of CFPF-funded infrastructure projects to ensure that flood mitigation investments are guided by a comprehensive, locally adopted strategy that addresses long-term risk reduction, changing environmental conditions and community priorities, said Matthew Sabas, a spokesperson for DCR.
“This requirement ensures projects are not piecemeal but instead part of a coordinated effort aligned with state and federal resilience goals,” he added in a statement.
He said the past five rounds of CFPF funds had drastically different parameters for review and turnaround times, and there is no established “average time for approval” for grant proposals. After approval, the grant recipient has a three-year period to complete their proposed project.
The CFPF program is reimbursement-based, meaning the locality completes the work and submits a request to cover those work-related expenses. Turnaround for that reimbursement is typically within 30 days, Sabas said.
Emily Steinhilber, spokesperson for the Virginia branch of the Environmental Defense Fund, pointed out that a lot of communities did not have resilience plans in place prior to 2020. The EDF is one of many organizations that partners with the Virginia Conservation Network; Steinhilber focuses on flood resilience in Virginia. Since the CFPF fund has been around, her organization has tracked the fund as well as its applications and has educated communities about the program.
“The goal with [requiring a resilience plan] is to make sure that communities are not just recovering from a storm with these funds but that they are really thinking about what the community-scale priorities are,” she said. “While that’s not a shovel in the ground, it is really important that we really understand where we’re going with the projects.”
She estimated that more than 40 resilience plans have been approved, across the state, by DCR. Once plans are approved, localities can move forward with applications for other project funding through CFPF funding including infrastructure projects and capacity grants, which help localities to build up staff and tools needed to manage flood plains.
“This doesn’t happen overnight. Even if you invest in a project, even then there’s years or so of construction so we’re in this for the long haul,” she said.
A ‘slow process’ to avoid creating more problems
“It is a slow process,” Bell said of the effort to get CFPF projects going in Damascus.
The town was awarded two grants of about $110,000 total to do a study on the feasibility of mirroring the 1977 flood mitigation efforts. The town plans to explore the possibility of buying out and relocating people who have property along the Laurel Creek bank and turning that area into green space and building a berm to support the banks.
“We don’t want to start moving dirt or setting rocks until the experts weigh in and give us a design and make sure it’s worth the investment,” Bell said.
As of September, the town was in the early stages of that planning process.
There are additional hurdles that the RGGI-funded projects face. Infrastructure projects around flowing water are required to avoid adverse impacts in communities down or upstream from where the project is built. For example, if a flood control dam is built, anyone upstream from the dam could have flood issues due to the slowed water. If the dam breaks or spills over, communities downstream could see flooding. Adverse impacts such as those need to be ruled out in order to receive funding for a project that would affect flowing water.
“Having a flood resilience plan is the most intuitive way to go forward so that you’re not reactively creating issues,” said Ian Blair, a spokesperson for Wetlands Watch.
Wetlands watch is another organization that partners with the Virginia Conservation Network and monitors the CFPF program while educating communities about the opportunity. The organization will often work with communities to review their applications and advise on how to make those applications more competitive.
“DCR won’t allow shovels in the ground until they understand the whole system is working,” Blair added.
The weather won’t wait for funding
Being a small rural town with a small tax base, Damascus does not have large coffers, and the town cannot begin the planning process with engineers or consultants without assurance that money is on its way.
“That has taken many, many months to sort through,” Bell said.
“The weather’s not going to wait; we could have another heavy rain event or hurricanes,” he added. “We’re certainly in a predicament, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed that we’ll continue with these planning grants, engineering and eventually get shovels in the ground.”
“We’re trying the best we can but also everything moves slower than we would like to,” he said.
He added that he appreciates the effort on behalf of DCR and the CFPF program to minimize the environmental impact of flood mitigation projects.
“What we could be doing could be even more harmful if we don’t take our time to do it correctly — look at what is going on, where’s this rain coming from, how quickly will creeks rise and what can we do, where should we do it, how should we funnel that water downstream,” he said.
How is the money being used locally?
Cardinal News reached out to Southwest localities and communities that were awarded grants through CFPF rounds 1-4.
The Community Flood Preparedness Fund, or CFPF, was established through legislative action in 2020 to provide support for regions and localities across Virginia to reduce the impacts of flooding, according to DCR. It is funded through proceeds from Virginia’s participation in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative auctions.
Grants to localities through CFPF are awarded in rounds. The first round of grant awards was announced by DCR in October 2021, the second round was announced in December 2021, the third round was announced in September 2022 and the fourth round was announced in March 2024.
Here are some details the localities shared about their projects.
Lenowisco PDC — awarded $150,000 in CFPF round 2 to create a flood resilience plan
“The project took a whole community approach to assess what resources and elements of flood resilience plans the region had in hand already, to identify gaps that needed to be addressed, and to develop initial roadmaps to fill those gaps. The work was completed for/in collaboration with Lee, Wise, and Scott Counties, and the City of Norton, and communities within those jurisdictions, “ said Duane Miller, executive director of the Lenowisco Planning District Commission.
The work included a Flood Resilience Plan Roadmap and a Flood Dashboard. The project was started in March, 2022 and completed in January 2025.
The study helped to increase awareness within LENOWISCO’s localities regarding internal staff capacity, emergency management resources at the local and regional level, and helped identify priorities regarding flood and emergency management at the local and regional level, Miller said.
The funding helped localities to increase in flood management capacity, especially in Wise County, Miller said. The CFPF program helped to prepare the county to better implement emergency funds and has also poised Wise to move forward with the next steps to seek grants from other agencies including the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Department of Housing and Community Development and CFPF round 6 funding, he added.
Christiansburg — awarded $3,732,041.40 in CFPF rounds 2 and 4 for a flood resilience plan and infrastructure projects
The town of Christiansburg applied for CFPF grants to form a resilience plan and subsequent drainage projects on College Street. The town also plans to acquire property and structures along its waterways to allow for floodwater to reclaim the area and then to restore those flood plains.
The town completed its resilience plan and by August had completed roughly 60% of the design work needed for the second phase of its College Street drainage project, said Christina Bolt, spokesperson for the town. Bolt added that the town is hopeful to begin construction on that part of the project in early 2026.
City of Roanoke — awarded $3,382,218.28 in CFPF rounds 2 and 4 for a resilience plan and infrastructure projects.
The city of Roanoke developed a flood resilience plan, between April 2022 and October 2023, when the plan was adopted by the city council. In early 2025, the city was in the process of developing a second plan for council consideration.
The city’s subsequent infrastructure projects include flood plain restoration of the Ore Branch Stream, which was designed in 2022 and funded in 2024 and drainage improvements at 1st Street and Salem Avenue downtown, which was designed in 2021 and funded in 2024. Work for both of those projects was expected to begin in 2025.
Clintwood — awarded $51,300 in CFPF round 3 for a resilience plan and mapping projects
The town of Clintwood developed a resilience plan to identify and support flood mitigation for Holly Creek. The project consisted of a mapping of the town’s stormwater system and developing a preliminary engineering report with cost estimates for improvements, said Judy Steele, the town clerk.
Clintwood received the grant in November 2022 and the funding period ended in November 2025.
The town engineer completed the resilience plan and was ready to move forward with a preliminary report for improvements and mapping in January, Steele said.
Dickenson County — awarded $2,232,415 in CFPF round 3 for a resilience plan and to restore floodplains
Dickenson County developed a resilience plan that included purchasing properties in flood-prone areas for the purpose of restoring flood plains.
The county had purchased two homes along Sandlick Road for that purpose as of January and was in the process of appraising others.
Had there been flooding along Sandlick Road, at least two homes most likely would have flooded due to their location along the Russell Fork River, said Willi Sturgill, attorney for the county.
Tazewell County — awarded $1,962,700.85 in CFPF round 3 and 4 for a resilience plan and infrastructure projects
Tazewell County developed a resilience plan with CFPF funds and has proposed multiple subsequent infrastructure projects.
Those projects include a storm water improvements study and subsequent work on Richlands Elementary School; a study of persistent flooding in the Bottom Road Area in Raven and Doran communities and to provide a list of potential mitigation strategies with focus on nature-based solutions; and to study, plan, permit and develop systematic and flood preventative debris removal and sediment removal.
The county delayed a couple of the projects to allow the engineers to focus on the Richlands Elementary School project because the school was flooded twice in fiscal year 2025, said Eric Young, county administrator, in December.
“We prioritized the implementation of a short term phased solution to reduce the likelihood of a flood while we implement the other improvements next summer when school is out of session,” he added.
Pennington Gap — awarded $48,500 in CFPF round 4 for a study regarding a flood-prone area
The town of Pennington Gap plans to conduct a study regarding flooding at Leeman Field Park.
The project began Nov. 12, 2024, when Hirschman Water and Environment, LLC was hired to gather data and prepare a preliminary study for a Flood Preparedness Master Plan, said Angie Odell, town clerk.
The project is ongoing with no projected completion date as of yet, Odell said in January.
“We hope it will lay the groundwork for future actions to minimize the cost of damages from flooding events,” said Keith Harless, in January. “The study is a critical first step toward identifying effective mitigation measures and putting strategies into motion to protect our locality.”
Work on the resilience plan was ongoing as of August, Harless said.
Wythe County — awarded $25,000 in CFPF round 4 to create a resilience plan
Allyson Williams, the county’s public information officer, said grant management was still in process as of January.
Salem — awarded $59,221 in CFPF round 3 for a resilience plan
The city of Salem has completed its resilience plan but subsequent projects had not begun as of January, said Mike Stevens, spokesperson for the city, in January.
Galax — awarded $180,000 in CFPF round 4 for a resilience plan
The city of Galax’s resilience plan is aimed to collect data and analysis for a flood plain ordinance and a public communication strategy, said Susan Carico, spokesperson for the city.
The grant is being administered through the Mount Rogers Planning District Commission and an engineering firm was contracted to complete the technical analysis. The city formed a Flood Management Resilience Committee. Data collection was anticipated to take place during the spring and summer and the plan was expected to be developed in the latter half of 2025, Carico said.
Grayson County — awarded $75,656 in CFPF round 3 for a resilience plan and for staff certification
Grayson County sought to establish and implement a stormwater resiliency plan and to gain certification for the county’s Flood Plain Administrator.
In August, work was ongoing largely through the county’s contracted engineering partners, The Lane Group, said Ryan Wilmoth, spokesperson for the county.
“Development of such a plan depends on several different data points to identify the most vulnerable areas and formulate tangible solutions for those areas. The Lane Group is continuing to work through those points and will present a formal plan to the Board of Supervisors for adoption once that plan is finalized. We do not have a specific timeline for this to occur, currently,” he added.
Abingdon — awarded $60,992.10 in CFPF round 4 to develop a resilience plan
The town of Abingdon completed its resilience plan in June. It was approved by the town council in July.
“With the plan now finalized, the next step allows the town to pursue funding for areas identified in the plan as flood prone. The resiliency plan serves as a roadmap to guide these efforts,” said Laura Dowell, town spokesperson in August.
