Floyd Batters Virginia Coast

Hurricane Floyd, battering the Virginia coast with up to 17 inches of rain and thundering winds, paralyzed the region with flooded highways and knocked out power and water service to thousands of people.

Four deaths were attributed to the storm, which weakened Thursday as it moved north. A few miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, several ships that are part of a government-owned reserve fleet of commercial vessels drifted up to 1,500 feet before their anchors dug in and held against 69 mph winds.

Gov. Jim Gilmore, who plans to visit the region Friday to look at storm damage, made restoring water service a top priority. About 120,000 people in Portsmouth, Suffolk and Chesapeake were left without drinking water when a flooded pumping station failed.

The Army Corps of Engineers will deliver 100,000 gallons of water a day to distribution points in the area served by the pumping facility, which could take a week or longer to repair.

Virginia Power said 270,000 customers, some as far inland as Richmond, were without electricity.

At the peak of the storm, more than 300 roads were closed because of high water or toppled trees, including a 10-mile section of Interstate 64 in Newport News and York County and the U.S. 58 bypass around Franklin.

Near Williamsburg, a 50-foot section of road collapsed into Lake Powell when a dam broke at the lake. The collapse took down pipes serving several thousand residents.