Flooding- 1948

             

                        Washed-Out Roads Keep Crews Busy 

RICHMOND, VA., May 27—(AP) —Crews of workmen today were busy restoring washed out rail and highway lanes over which traffic between here and Newport News had been halted.

 Heavy rainstorms in New Kent and Charles City Counties yesterday flooded to as much as eight feet sections of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and U.S. Highway 60 in the Windsor Shades area.

 Whether rail and highway traffic could be resumed over these two arterial lines sometime today had not been determined early this morning by C.& O. and State Highway Department Officials. A lot depended upon whether additional rainfall fell.

 A C.& O. spokesman said the railroad “hopes" to have one track open for resumption of train movements by this afternoon. As much as 250 feet of the railroad's main line fill had been undermined by the torrents.

 Trains had not moved between here and Newport News since train No. 45, The Sportsman, was halted about 2 p.m. yesterday at Providence Forge and has turned back in Richmond. 

 The Highway Department was routing traffic between here and Williamsburg over route 33. This road was covered with four to six inches of water for a while near New Kent Courthouse; but was clear by nightfall last night. 

 Where Route 60 paralleled the railroad east of Providence Forge, long stretches of highway were covered with water to depths up to eight feet late yesterday. 

-Suffolk News-Herald,  27 May 1948