RICHMOND, Va. -- On August 30 2004, the remnants of Hurricane Gaston stalled over Richmond, Virginia, and triggered fatal flash flooding that claimed multiple lives and caused millions of dollars in damage to the city's historic Shockoe Bottom neighborhood.
While the Bottom was Ground Zero, other parts of metro Richmond dealt with the deluge.
The Powhite Parkway became submerged, causing catastrophic damage to the toll road. Falling Creek turned into a raging river, washing away most everything in its path.
In the aftermath of the storm, anguish was coupled with outrage.
While the amount of rain had been unprecedented, an outdated drainage system contributed to the chaos. Almost no one in the Bottom had flood insurance since the construction of the Flood Wall a decade prior had taken this area out of the flood zone.
Scroll down to hear the voices of some of those who experience Tropical Storm Gaston first hand.
What do you remember about Tropical Storm Gaston? Email your memories to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
CBS 6 Chief Meteorologist Zach Daniel
"We get big heavy rain events quite often from tropical systems, but to have that lunch in that short a period of time, very unusual," CBS 6 Chief Meteorologist Zach Daniel said looking back at the storm on its 20th anniversary. "It was just a flash flooding event on steroids, and it happened to be in an area that everything funnels in."
Richmond developer Bill Chapman
"Within a matter of minutes. It was truly Class V, five foot rapids going down 15th and Main Streets. Cars being swept away, power poles being swept away, street lights being knocked down. It was so chaotic and so powerful, I grew up surfing, and I would have never in a million years jumped into the water to try and help. It was just it was impossible."
"The wall over by the train station, water was coming over that wall, just like what you would see at Z-Dam on the James River."
"Once we were able to sort of get to safety on the second floor, looking down again, it looked like an event where people were going to lose their lives."
Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards
"By far the biggest weather event. I just remember hearing the call like people were calling 9-1-1, saying, 'I need the police to come pick me up and take take me to this thing.' No, stay where you're at. You know, if it's an emergency, we're coming, but we can't do any good if we're getting stuck in the rain or if our car gets washed off the road."
"I just remember thinking, wow, we're going to be working 12 hour shifts every day until this is cleaned up."
Former CBS 6 photojournalist Chris Norton
"It was it was insane. I'd never seen it rain that hard, probably ever, and the fact that it did it for a couple hours."
"I can't even remember where we parked, and I can't remember how we got down here. We could see kind of halfway down the block. The water was up to there, and they were bringing people from the Bottom up in boats. I don't know whose boats, but like regular like John boats and rafts and stuff like that. They were just bringing people up and it was still raining."
"When the water went down it looked like a little kid was in a tub, had a bunch of toys, and somebody let the water out, and all the toys were like in the corner of the tub. That's what it looked like, and it was real."
"Think about how much more stuff's down here now than 20 years ago. There's more people living down here. There's more businesses down here. You would have a lot more of a loss down here if something like that happened again."
What do you remember about Tropical Storm Gaston? Email your memories to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
EAT IT, VIRGINIA restaurant news and interviews
