As Tropical Storm Debby leaves Sampson County behind, the Emergency Operations Center is setting its sights on what comes next, including possible flooding issues, especially in the southern end of the county.

According to reports from the National Weather Service, Sampson County saw an average of 6-8 inches of rain between late Tuesday and Thursday night. The town with the highest amount of rainfall was Harrells with 7.65 inches. That was followed by Clinton with 7.04 inches, Roseboro with 7 inches and Salemburg with 6.15 inches of rain.

It is those rainfall totals that could lead to river flooding in some areas.

Jared Rouse, Emergency Management coordinator for Sampson County, said during Friday morning’s control group meeting new information regarding the predicted river levels was discussed.

He said that the National Weather Service brought the predicted river levels down from Wednesday’s projection of 27 inches — which was how high the levels were after Hurricane Matthew.

“On Thursday, they brought that prediction down to 24 inches. And now they’re saying it’ll be 22.1 inches,” Rouse said.

But even with the predicted river levels going down, Rick Sauer, the director of Sampson’s Emergency Services, noted that flooding and the Black River were still of “major concern” for the county.

“We’re still going to see some flooding in the southern part of the county,” noted Jean Ko, Community & Special Projects Administrator/PIO for Sampson County Government.

For the full story pick up a copy of the Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 10-11, 2024 edition of The Sampson Independent.