By the time the remnants of Hurricane Florence reached Botetourt Sunday, the Carolinas and Southside Virginia had drained much of its energy.
Bands of rain from the outer edge of the storm provided mild rain starting last Friday night. Sunday and Sunday night, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for Botetourt. But by the time the storm remnants reached western Virginia, it did little more than knock out power to a few scattered locations and drop 2 to 3 inches of rain that swelled a few creeks and wash some driveways in Botetourt.
It did prompt Botetourt County Schools to delay the start of classes by two hours Monday, while some neighboring counties that got more rain, wind and power outages cancelled school.
Worry that the storm that left the Carolinas with record rainfall might create flood and wind problems in Botetourt dimmed after the storm that hit the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts Friday turned more southerly and westerly then slowly to the northwest over the weekend.
The storm threat prompted a number of postponements and cancellations by midweek last week.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) issued warnings that a number of roads in Roanoke County south and west were blocked because of flooding or downed trees.
At 11 a.m. Monday, VDOT reported around 120 roads in the Salem District remained blocked by trees or were beneath water. Most of these impacts were in Floyd, Franklin, Henry, Patrick and Carroll Counties.
Botetourt emergency services stayed on alert as the storm made landfall late last week and the fire and rescue stations remained manned full time through the weekend.