Tropical Storm Gaston Deluges Virginia Towns

The remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston battered parts of Virginia with torrential rain Monday, sending cars floating down streets and stranding people in downtown buildings.

Gov. Mark R. Warner declared a state of emergency, making state resources available and putting the Virginia National Guard on standby.

“It looks like rapids outside our building,” said Nick Baughan, who was stranded with about 20 other people on the second floor of Bottoms Up Pizza in Richmond. “All of our cars have floated away.”

The first floor was under 10 to 12 feet of water, Baughan said.

About 11 inches of rain fell in Richmond, causing cars to float down flooded streets and ram into the restaurant and other buildings in the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood,a popular entertainment area.

“We had a side shed attached to the building. It’s not attached anymore,” Baughan said.

Fourteen people were rescued from flooded buildings or cars, police spokeswoman Cynthia Price said.

A stretch of Interstate 95 was closed and many streets were impassable, creating traffic jams that lasted from rush hour well into the night.

“As you can imagine, with all the gridlock we’re having a hard time getting where we need to be,” Price said.

Two emergency shelters were opened, she said. No injuries were immediately reported.

About 82,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers in the Richmond area and southeastern Virginia lost service Monday night.

Farther south, residents and officials in the Carolinas cleaned up the mess left by Gaston and kept their eyes on Hurricane Frances, which was still far out in the Atlantic.

While Gaston caused some problems, “it’s not the kind of catastrophic damage we see in a major hurricane,” South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said.

He urged coastal residents to monitor Frances, which had 125 mph winds but was still days from reaching the Southeast coast. ‘

Gaston, which came ashore Sunday just under hurricane strength with winds of 70 mph, brought rains estimated at 13 inches in South Carolina.

The storm flooded areas already saturated by Hurricane Charley this month and cut power to 172,000 electric customers in the state.

Fewer than 29,000 customers remained without power Monday.