Raised water levels from Great Coharie Creek, a Black River tributary, off of Helltown Road near Garland. The water, itself, has flooded the bank of the river, completely covering the bottom of the tree trunks growing near it.
Alyssa Bergey | Sampson Independent
Tropical Storm Debby made its way out of North Carolina last week, and while the storm dumped a lot of rain, damage appears minimal to non-existent.
For a place like Turkey, where the water levels are less of a risk, the rain was more of an annoyance than a hindrance.
Town Clerk Teresa Frack said the storm “didn’t even hit Turkey.” Instead, she said that the majority of the storm hit closer to the Clinton area, and that Turkey barely saw any rain. The town hall stayed open throughout the whole week.
For Garland, there was more worry about the weather and the rain because of where the town is located and the rivers that run near it.
During last Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, members voted to close town hall starting Wednesday at noon and throughout the rest of the week due to the town clerk commuting from Clinton and worry about the roads. But, Mayor Austin Brown said the town hall was able to open last Friday, and it is back to its normal hours.
“We did not have any power outages within the city limits that I was made aware of. Our town streets were fine with the exception of some debris removal,” Brown stated. “I was able to keep most of our residents updated via one call when we had updates from the county. Nothing major happened that I have been told.”
The mayor spent Monday doing his own assessment of the town, driving through the town streets. He concluded the streets within the town limits were “good.”
Since last Tuesday, the Horticultural Crops Research Station in Clinton recorded 8.3 inches of total rainfall. By Friday, the National Weather Service brought the predicted river levels to below 22 inches and the county had closed the shelter that they had initially opened Thursday afternoon.
“We were told at one point that we would potentially see as much water as we did for Matthew,” Rick Sauer, the director for Sampson County Emergency Services, said. “And that was 27 inches that would cross them into a major flood event, especially down south. And we did get into the major flood stage, but we did not get as high as Matthew.”
The roads that were closed during Tropical Storm Debby have been reopened. Sauer said most of them were closed due to flooding, and that there wasn’t much that the county could do until the water went down by itself.
“When you have a flat land there and it just goes over the roadways, there’s not a lot we can do except to notify the public through social media and through the websites and wait for that water to come down,” he said.
But despite the road closure notifications, Sauer mentioned that emergency rescue services did have to complete a few swift water rescues.
“People drove around barricades and ignored the road closed signs, and then we had to go rescue them because their vehicle became disabled or they became trapped,” he said.
The Avenue in the Roseboro area was briefly closed after the shoulder was washed out from the rain. Sauer said other than The Avenue, they aren’t sure about the extent of damage done to other roads.
“We may have to wait until the water completely recedes for them to do a total evaluation, especially down south,” he said, nothing that there is a possibility that there would be more damage.
Overall, Sauer said besides the tornado that went through the Harrells area, the damage was “not that significant.”
You can reach Alyssa Bergey at 910-249-4617. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.