The Election Day FloodThe Flood of November 1985

Cartoon from The Alleghanian (November 9th, 1985)

Introduction:This is a grouping of primary sources about the Election Day flood which occurred November 4th & 5th 1985. The included resources concentrate on damage done to Covington Va. and the surrounding areas. They are presented as a group of assignments to be used by high school students to learn about an event in Alleghany Highlands history.

Interviews:Open the attached worksheet from the

National Archives. Choose one of the interviews and listen and complete the worksheet.

National Archives Sound Recording Worksheet

Interview of John Hutchison

Interview of Chris Bowles

Attached is a chart from the Dartmouth Flood Observatory showing “Large Flood Events ~ 1985-2003”http://www.dartmouth.edu/~floods/archiveatlas/floodnumber85_03.htm#

Study the chart and answer the questions on the next slide.

Questions for Flood Chart:1. Why do you think the years 2002 & 2003

show a much greater number of floods then the pervious years?

2. Does the number of major flood events between 1985 and 1987 look accurate? What makes you feel this way?

3. What kind of technology advances do you think we have made that allows for much higher data reliability?

The Great Flood of 1985http://www.roanoke.com/multimedia/flood/main.html

The above link is to a multimedia presentation entitled The Great Flood of 1985 by The Roanoke Times. Spend some time exploring the links included in the presentation.

Do you recognize any of the places in the pictures?Pick one of the pictures from the presentation and

write a paragraph about what you think the people in the picture are feeling.

News Clips of Flood Footage:Below you will find news coverage of the

flood, complete an analysis worksheet for each of the clips and use them to complete the Venn diagram of the following page.

Tom Brokaw's NewscastNewscast from West Virginia State Archives

News Story Analysis Worksheet

Pictures of AHS after the Flood:As a group pick 1 of the following pictures

that were taken from The Alleghanian (Nov. 5-9th 1985) and complete a National Archives Photo Analysis Worksheet.

Stay in your groups and using all the information you have gained from examining the primary sources in this presentation compile a list of at least 12 question you would ask during an interview of someone who was affected by the Election Day Flood of 1985.

Turn in these questions along with all the rest of the work you completed.