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Franklin Co., VA - In Rocky Mount, it was two lifeguards themselves who were in need of rescue during Thursday's storms. They were working at a pool, when the water swept in.
Once the meanest of the clouds moved east, the damage in Franklin County was clear- fields flattened, the power was out, trees were down and then came the water.
Lifeguard Chelsea Anderson was stranded. She said, "Well, we were sitting under the shelter and it started raining real hard so we moved to the closet, but then the shelter started flooding and then all of a sudden the shelter started flooding then the road was flooded and we decided we couldn't leave."
Lifeguard Whitney Lawrence was also stranded. "The wind was blowing really hard, rain coming in the shelter then we came out and saw this," Lawrence said.
Chelsea Anderson and her friend Whitney are lifeguards at The Brookside Swim Club- which became surrounded by raging flood waters just 10 minutes after the rain started.
"We knew it would be flooding and we thought we could get out, but we couldn't," Chelsea said. "So we called my dad."
Darryl Anderson, Chelsea's father, said, "Got here and water was up and the police said I couldn't go in. We could've got in there with a tractor if needed to."
But they didn't need to because the water started going down almost as fast as it came up and before long, rescue was near. "It was a bad storm a lot of rain fell in a short time, a lot," Darryl said.
Now even though that water didn't seem too deep, never try to estimate the depth of rushing water. We can't tell you how many times people have tried to walk or drive through "less" ominous looking water with fatal results.
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