New flooding brings more evacuations in Virginia for second time in roughly a month

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Flooding prompted evacuation orders Friday in the same neighborhood for the second time in a little more than a month, the mayor's office said.<br/><br/>The evacuation order for

Friday, October 6th 2006, 10:00 pm

By: News On 6

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Flooding prompted evacuation orders Friday in the same neighborhood for the second time in a little more than a month, the mayor's office said.

The evacuation order for about 50 homes in Richmond's Battery Park neighborhood came after the National Weather Service forecast as much as 6 inches of rain Friday, city officials said.

Rain that began Thursday night had already saturated the ground and caused flooding, and officials said pumps couldn't keep up with the volume.

Water was 22 feet deep at the lowest part of the neighborhood's bowl-shaped recreational area, officials said, and police officers were going door to door to tell residents of 47 homes to leave.

More than 250 homes were ordered evacuated in early September when rain brought by Tropical Storm Ernesto, worsened by a partially blocked sewer pipe, nearly submerged some.

"I'm scared. I don't know how to swim," Geenell Dandridge, her station wagon, parked in front of her home, already submerged by mid-afternoon, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Friday.

An emergency shelter was set up, the city said in a news release.

City workers have since been building a trench to divert water elsewhere, but progress has been slow.