Lynchburg continues its cleanup efforts post-Debby

LYNCHBURG, Va. ( WFXR )– Tropical storm Debby has made its way through Lynchburg, and while the storm itself has passed, the cleanup efforts have gotten started.

Fortunately, the city was spared from worse damage, with the majority of the trouble coming from outages.

“So, we were pretty fortunate in the city, we didn’t have a lot of roads that were impassable,” said Greg Wormser , the Fire Chief of Lynchburg. “We did respond to a number of power line-related issues, electrical-related issues, and trees down.”

The storm caused the city to only close down three roads in total. One of which they got reopened.

Lynchburg’s public works department had crew teams out and about quickly clearing debris off the roads.

“Everything is pretty well cleaned up,” Clay Simmons, the Deputy Director of Lynchburg’s public works department, said. “There might be some limited debris that’s around still, but nothing that should be a major problem for traffic.”

The roads that are still closed received significant damage to power lines, mostly from trees. Simmons is urging people in those areas to be patient.

“All of the trees that we’re aware of that are blocking roads right now are involved with utilities,” he said. “We have to wait for the utilities to be able to catch up and get through, and clear those so then we can come in and do our part.”

Officials are also monitoring the James River, whose water levels rose overnight. Although it shouldn’t be a concern for the roads, the fire department is encouraging people to be cautious if they plan on going out on the river.

“It can take several days before those waters get to their highest point, and the water that is in the river is moving at a pretty fast pace,” Wormser said. “Certainly, over the next several days, we’re mindful of that and we want to remind our citizens to be careful when they’re out on the river.”

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