HURRICANE FLORENCE: Wilmington an island again

Flooding closes US 421, which was backed up with traffic for miles Wednesday

SOUTHEASTERN N.C. — New Hanover County became an island again Thursday morning, as state officials closed U.S. 421 after portions of the road on the New Hanover-Pender county line flooded.

“At this time no safe, stable or reliable route exists for the public to get to and from Wilmington,” the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) said in an advisory Thursday morning.

The closure came after the road was identified as one of the few entry points into the county, along with U.S. 17 from the north or south, both of which were reportedly flowing smoothly Thursday.

Getting to U.S. 17 may be difficult, though, as a part of the road was closed northeast of Pender County after flood waters washed over a bridge, according to the DOT. And with flood waters rising north of New Hanover County, U.S. 17 could be further compromised in the coming days, said Karen Collette, division engineer for the DOT region that includes Southeastern North Carolina.

“The waters are still rising, receding and moving,” she said. “This is a fluid situation.”

On Wednesday, incoming traffic on U.S. 421 saw cars backed up for 11 miles, Collette said.

Much of the traffic was people trying to return to the Wilmington region after having left for places inland as Hurricane Florence approached. But Collette said the two-lane route wasn’t built to handle traffic she said was akin to Azalea Festival weekend’s influx that is usually brought to the region on Interstate 40.

But with several miles of I-40 closed, U.S. 421 became choked with cars.

“That road was not designed to carry (the equivalent of) three lanes of traffic on one lane,” she said.

Collette, who said transportation officials are trying to find a new route into Wilmington for utility crews, supply runs and emergency vehicles, echoed the call local and state officials have said for the last several days: if you are in a safe place inland, stay there. Any available roads into or out of the region are needed for vital supplies to recover from the storm, she said.

“We need supplies, gas, food, power companies,” Collette said. “We need that transportation system open so that, when the general public gets here,” things like gasoline, power and groceries will be available.

During a press conference Thursday, New Hanover County Board of Commissioners Chairman Woody White repeated his request for people to delay coming home as long as they can, saying that, while grocery stores and gas stations were able to stock up Wednesday and Thursday, future flooding predicting for the region in the coming days may disrupt those supply chains.

“Those are diminishing commodities, so the more people who show up, as long as we’re an island the more difficult it’s going to be to meet essential needs like that,” White said.

Collette said officials don’t know when I-40 will be reopened.

“We’re not sure when we’re even going to see pavement yet,” she said.

Even when the waters recede, she said, the road likely will be severely damaged and need repairs.

“It’s been underwater for a week or so,” Collette said. “There most likely will be major repairs to I-40 even when we can see the pavement.”

Flooding continues

In Pender County, the ever-rising Northeast Cape Fear River near Burgaw — it was at more than 25 feet Wednesday night, shattering its previous record depth of 22.5 feet — has seen several miles of N.C. 53 closed.

The National Weather Service reported flood waters could inundate 12 miles of N.C. 53 with as much as 7 feet of water, as well as flooding homes in communities such as River Bend, Sandy Bend and others nearby.

Pender County Manager Randell Woodruff said Thursday morning that he could not get from the county’s annex in Hampstead to the emergency operations center in Burgaw because of flooded roads.

“The damages are very significant,” he said.

The Waccamaw River reached a record 22.55 feet Wednesday at Freeland, northwest of Brunswick County’s Ash community, with the river projected to crest on Friday. As that water works downstream, it’s flooded areas such as Ash and communities such as Brunswick Plantation, where deputies from the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office have been going door-to-door to evacuate residents since Wednesday morning.

Randy Thompson, the county commissioner who represents Brunswick’s southwest corner, toured Brunswick Plantation, Crow Creek and the Brunswick Sheriff’s Office’s command post at Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary School on Thursday.

“It’s a pretty tough situation we have in most of these areas,” Thompson said. “The reports that I’m getting indicate that we probably have water in garages and things like that, but it’s surrounded a good number of homes in that particular area. We’re just trying to monitor and see what happens from here.”

Water was waist-deep in some locations, Thompson added, but about a foot deep in residential areas such as Brunswick Plantation and Crow Creek. Many residents had evacuated, he added, while others remained nearby.

“Middleton (Drive) and Crow Creek are probably seeing it for the first time in some areas to this extent, Thompson said.

Joyce Dunn, Carolina Shores’ mayor, said the water hasn’t yet made its way to her town, near the North Carolina-South Carolina border. If flooding comes, Dunn said, it will likely be during the weekend.

“Most of the preparations we did, we did before the hurricane because our big focus is keeping our stormwater system flowing,” Dunn said.

If people are in low-lying areas that have flooded previously, Dunn added, they should evacuate again.

Reporter Adam Wagner contributed to this report.

Reporter Tim Buckland can be reached at 910-343-2217 or Tim.Buckland@StarNewsOnilne.com.

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