Families along the coast of North Carolina are dealing with damage and flooding from what could be a tropical storm.
During a news conference in Southport on Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Roy Cooper said that Brunswick County was the worst struck. Eighteen counties in the southeast of the state were put under a State of Emergency by the governor. Cooper said, “We got local and state to work together to deal with a very violent storm.”
In some places, the storm dropped as much as 20 inches of rain. Several roads and bridges were totally washed away. As the risk of flooding grew, a state-run rehab center in Southport had to flee.
Patients were taken to other state-run facilities by ambulances from all over North Carolina, including Harnett County. A driver from Southport who was 80 years old was found dead in a flooded car. State police in North Carolina said the driver tried to get around roadblocks.
“If you see a road with high water, you don’t know what’s damaged next to or under that road,” said Joey Hopkins, who is in charge of transportation in North Carolina. “You shouldn’t drive through that water.”
Along the coast, at least 60 roads and bridges are closed at the moment. Crews from all over the state of NCDOT are working quickly to get the roads open again. These places were already having trouble with floods from Tropical Storm Debby last month.
“I like to say that money doesn’t matter,” Hopkins said. “We will do everything we can to get these roads open while it’s still possible.” We are going to the federal government to try to get our money back for what we are entitled to when the time comes.
Cooper said, “We need to put money into this and work hard to get all the money that can help people, businesses, and our public infrastructure get through this.”
When mending and fixing things after these storms, the governor said climate change must be taken into account. Cooper said, “We need to remember that climate change is changing the way storms happen and how strong they are.”
“We need to keep that in mind as we rebuild.” It’s time for us to be stronger. But we need to be ready even if there isn’t a named storm.