The rain is good news for our area, but it did cause some problems Wednesday morning. A tree came down on Cottontown Road in Bedford County backing up traffic and causing some delays. We're told crews have cleared the area and everything is back to normal.

The rain also caused some traffic problems in Roanoke. Part of a tree fell onto a house on Melrose Avenue. Both lanes were closed for some time while crews removed it.

Then just a few blocks up, we found another tree leaning on power lines. Appalachian Power says there are about 300 customers without power in Roanoke at this hour, the majority are in the Bent Mountain area.

The National Weather Service (web|news) in Blacksburg has issued a Flash Flood Watch in effect through Wednesday evening throughout much of the ABC 13 Viewing area. Periods of heavy rainfall are expected to bring another 1 to 3 inches of rain to the area.  Locally heavier amounts are possible.

Parts of the watch area have already had 2 to 5 inches of rain. There is a chance of additional excessive rainfall. If this occurs, more rapid rises on creeks and streams can be expected.

A Flash Flood Watch means flooding of streams and creeks is possible through midnight Wednesday night.  However, flooding of larger rivers (Dan, James, Roanoke, Staunton) is not expected.  Flash flooding is a very dangerous situation.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Fay will work across the state Wednesday and bring beneficial rain to much of Virginia. The heaviest rain occurred during the morning, then more breaks in the rain will develop for the afternoon.

Lynchburg Utilities officials say this rainfall is not nearly enough to begin re-pumping water out of the Pedlar Reservoir. So far, they've seen about half-an-inch of rain around the reservoir. They say it's made very little impact on the water levels. We'll still need several more rainfalls, dropping several inches of rain each time before they can begin using the Pedlar again.

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