As Hurricane Ian moved into the Eastern Seaboard flood warnings were issued for South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Virginia Beach was given a warning of increased flood surges. In response the Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, activated the National Guard & Virginia Defense Force.

The Virginia National Guard had troops and trucks stationed at readiness centers throughout the Virginia Beach area ready to respond to any missions.

NEWS | Oct. 3, 2022

VNG staged, ready in Eastern Shore, Hampton Roads areas for possible weather response operations

By Cotton Puryear | Virginia National Guard Public Affairs Office

RICHMOND, Va.  –  The Virginia National Guard has staged eight Soldiers and four tactical trucks capable of high water transportation Oct. 3, 2022, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The Soldiers are linked up with local emergency managers and will provide assistance if needed. The VNG has also staged 12 Soldiers and six trucks at readiness centers in the Hampton Roads area.

“The Virginia National Guard stays in close contact with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the rest of Virginia’s emergency response community when severe weather threatens in order to quickly and safely provide capabilities requested by localities,” explained Brig. Gen. James W. Ring, Virginia National Guard director of the joint staff. “We are extremely proud of the rapid response of our personnel to get high water transportation capabilities in place where it could be needed, and the VNG will remain on duty as long as possible flooding and high winds are expected. As always, we are very thankful for the continued support of families and employers which is absolutely critical to mission success.”

Typical missions for the VNG during hurricane or tropical storm response operations are transporting first responders, moving citizens to safe locations or distributing food and water in remote areas as well as providing chain saw teams to help reduce debris to clear roads or power line routes.

Debris reductions teams have been alerted for possible duty but not activated and staged.

The Virginia Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team has also been alerted to a higher state of readiness and can be fully activated if needed. The Virginia HART is a VNG Black Hawk helicopter with rescue hoist capabilities and rescue technicians from the Chesterfield County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Scuba Rescue Team. VNG aviators bring the capabilities of their helicopters to the mission, while Chesterfield brings first responders with swift-water rescue training and other life-saving proficiencies. Read more about the HART partnership at https://ngpa.us/21904 and view photos of recent training on Flickr at https://ngpa.us/21905.

Additional Soldiers, Airmen and members of the Virginia Defense Force are on duty to provide logistics, administrative and operations center support for the response teams at multiple locations in the state.

During domestic operations, the VNG receives missions from VDEM and responds as part of a multi-agency team with other state and local agencies to provide support capabilities requests by Virginia communities. VDEM determines where capabilities are allocated, and the VNG does not respond to direct requests for assistance. Localities looking for VNG support should make their requests to VDEM, and they determine which organization can best provide the requested assistance as they coordinate the regional and statewide response.

​~ Photos of VNG preparations and staging on Flickr at https://ngpa.us/21912.

Virginia Defense Force troops assisted the National Guard at Emergency Operation Centers assisting in administrative & logistical missions.

Members of the Virginia Defense Force provide night shift staffing at the Virginia National Guard Joint Operations Center Oct. 3, 2022, at the Sergeant Bob Slaughter Headquarters at Defense Supply Center Richmond, Virginia, as VNG Soldiers and trucks are staged on the Eastern Shore and in the Hampton Roads area. VDF personnel are also providing administrative and logistics support at multiple VNG staging locations and operations center augmentation at the Virginia Emergency Operations Center.

Weather forecasters predicted a ‘significant multi-day coastal flood event’ that would result in a Nor’easter. Thankfully this did not occur.

Virginia Beach to resume normal operations after impacts of from Ian’s remnants were less than expected

By Jennifer Henderson, CNN

Updated 8:49 PM EDT, Mon October 3, 2022

A tree is seen down in the Thoroughgood neighborhood of Virginia Beach during severe weather on Friday, September 30.

Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via AP

CNN — 

After being under a state of emergency for nearly 24 hours, Virginia Beach will resume normal operations Tuesday after the impacts from an incoming system were minimal than expected, according to a news release from the city.

The coastal Virginia city was placed under a state of emergency Sunday night ahead of what was expected to be widespread coastal flooding due in part to the remnants of post-tropical storm Ian.

A “significant multi-day coastal flood event” was expected to generate from a low-pressure system offshore merging with the remnants of Hurricane Ian to create a nor’easter, the city said in an earlier news release.

Danielle Progen, Virginia Beach emergency management coordinator, said the combination of ground saturation from Ian’s rainfall, high tide along with wind-driven high water in the Chesapeake Bay and Lynnhaven River systems, would create a situation in which rising water levels would nave nowhere to drain.

However, by Monday evening the expected chaos was nowhere to be found. While the Lynnhaven inlet’s tidal gauge hit “Major” flood stage Monday afternoon, “impacts were minimal with forecasted tidal flooding decreasing by at least 1 (foot) from Sunday’s forecasted levels,” city spokesperson Tiffany M. Russell told CNN via email.

The city will now resume regular operation beginning Tuesday at 6 a.m. ET. Public schools were also closed Monday, but announced later in the evening they would resume normal operations on Tuesday.

One of the highest tides in the past decade was possible for the southern Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast, according to an earlier tweet from the National Weather Service in Wakefield, Virginia.

The threat extends over a large area, with coastal flood warnings or advisories covering over 20 million people from Long Island to the North Carolina Outer Banks. Some locations around Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach were expected to see flooding and their highest water levels in five to 10 years, according to the weather service.

How climate change makes coastal flooding worse

Rapid sea level rise — caused by the climate crisis and sinking land — is increasing the frequency and intensity of coastal flood events like the one Virginia Beach will experience Monday.

Sea level in the Virginia Beach area has climbed 10 inches in the last four decades alone which has made extreme flooding more frequent.

Since 1950, the Sewells Point tide station near Norfolk and Virginia Beach has recorded more than 200 days of flooding. More than half of those days would not have occurred if not for sea level rise, according to a study from Climate Central, a non-profit climate analysis service.

A separate report published earlier this year found sea level in the US will rise as much in the next 30 years as it did in the past 100 – increasing the frequency of high-tide flooding, pushing storm surge to the extreme, and inundating vulnerable coastal infrastructure with saltwater.

The interagency report, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows how scientists are increasingly confident that US coasts will see another 10 to 12 inches of sea level rise by 2050.

CNN’s Dave Hennen, Monica Garrett, Kristina Sgueglia, Eric Levenson and Angela Fritz contributed to this report.

Source: Virginia National Guard – Virginia Defense Force – CNN