Farmville repair work begins, with more storms possibly on the way

Published 9:37 am Thursday, July 10, 2025

By Brian Carlton

Farmville
A look at the collapsed drainage culvert on Hurd Street, courtesy of Richard McClintock.
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Farmville remains under a flood watch until 2 a.m. Friday, as town officials work to repair the damage already done. Wednesday night’s storms left plenty of rain behind, with the National Weather Service reporting between 1.74 inches and 2 inches of rain falling in parts of Farmville and the surrounding area. All of that water in a short amount of time overloaded drains and flooded the downtown area, along with multiple roads in Prince Edward County. 

Now one day later, the repair work begins. Farmville’s Public Works crew is out this morning, doing assessments around town for all damage. As of 9 a.m., there was a culvert failure found under the road on Hurd Street. That section of town has been blocked off, from Third Avenue to Fourth Avenue. Also, a culvert failed on Blanton Street, with a barricade set up there as well, from South Virginia Street to Vernon Street. A third culvert on Winston Street also collapsed, shutting the street down from South Virginia Street to Vernon Street. 

“We are looking for any others that may have occurred based on the amount of rain (that fell) in a short period of time,” said Farmville Town Manager Scott Davis. He added the town staff was also looking at traffic signals and other infrastructure that might have been damaged. There is no estimated time to get repairs done, as workers are still estimating the total amount of damage done. 

But as this repair work takes place, town staff ask residents to steer clear of the sections that are behind barriers. As work crews identify the damage, the barricades are going up. And while the ground may look stable, there’s no guarantee it will hold, especially around the collapsed culverts. 

“We do ask people to not walk around these culvert failures that have been barricaded off for safety reasons,” Davis said. 

The governor checks in

As the storms came through Wednesday night, both Farmville Police Chief Andy Ellington and Prince Edward Sheriff Tony Epps got an unexpected call. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin reached out to both men, to check in during the flooding.
“I would like to thank our Governor Glenn Youngkin for personally contacting Chief Ellington and me this evening, offering any necessary assistance to our Town and County due to the excessive rainfall and flooding,” Epps wrote on the department’s Facebook page. “His support is deeply appreciated.”
As of Thursday morning, one road remained shut down in Prince Edward, with cleanup work continuing on Poorhouse Road.  Officials with the Virginia Department of Transportation say they’re working hard this morning to get the road open again. That includes clearing mud, draining the remaining water and removing debris that fell across in some areas. Officials from VDOT’s Lynchburg district, of which Prince Edward is part of, say they hope to have things cleaned up by later this morning.

Storms return to Farmville?

As for the rest of today, things are expected to continue drying out. But later this afternoon and into tonight, more rain could be on the way. The National Weather Service out of Wakefield calls for a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m., with the chance of severe storms increasing to 60% between 11 p.m. tonight and 1 a.m. Friday.

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