NC coastal communities deal with flooding and damage from Monday’s heavy rainfall

CAROLINA BEACH, N.C. (WNCN) — Families along the North Carolina Coast are dealing with flooding and damage from a potential tropical cyclone .

Gov. Roy Cooper said Brunswick County was hit the hardest during a news conference on Wednesday afternoon in Southport. The governor declared a State of Emergency for eight counties in the southeastern part of the state. “We got local and state working together to respond to a storm that was very violent,” Cooper said.

The storm dumped as much as 20 inches of rain in parts of the area. It completely washed away multiple roads and bridges. A state-operated rehab center in Southport was forced to evacuate as the threat of flooding increased, with ambulances from across North Carolina, including Harnett County, taking patients to other state-operated facilities. An 80-year-old driver from Southport was found dead in a submerged vehicle . North Carolina state troopers said the driver tried to drive around barricades in a road.

“If you see a road that has high water, you do not know what’s damaged on the side of that road or under that road,” said Joey Hopkins, the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “It’s not safe to drive through that water.

There are at least 60 roads and bridges closed right now in coastal counties. NCDOT crews from across the state are on grounding quickly working to get roads reopened. These communities were already dealing with flooding from Tropical Storm Debby last month.

“I like to say money is no object,” Hopkins said. “While it’s no object, we are going to do everything we can to open these roads. We are going to go to federal government and try to get reimbursed on what we qualify for when it’s appropriate.

Said Cooper, “We are going to have to invest and make sure we are working hard to get all of the funding that can help people, businesses, and our public infrastructure through all of this.”

The governor said climate change must be considered when rebuilding and repairing after these storms. “We got to remember that climate change is affecting weather patterns and the intensity of storms,” Cooper said. “It’s something we have to remember as we rebuild. We have to be more resilient. But we also have to be ready even if a storm is not named.”

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