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Brunswick Plantation community holds out hope for minimal flood damage
CALABASH, NC (WECT) –
By Randi Hildreth
Hundreds of people are trying to get home to a community in Brunswick County after a second evacuation.
Members of the Brunswick Plantation community evacuated for Hurricane Florence, came back after the storm and were then forced to leave again after water from the Caw Caw Swamp rose.
“To me, the water is the scariest thing because it has no end,” said Brunswick Plantation resident Sandra Schroeder. “It gets to where it wants to go and there’s no way to stop it.”
Schroeder lives in one of the 600 homes in the back end of Brunswick Plantation community where water was onto the property and, at minimum, into their garage.
It’s made for a scary adjustment to living in the South for Schroeder.
“I actually moved in here at the end of November last year,” she said. “It’s really scary. It’s not believable to know that one minute there’s nothing and another minute, you’re looking at five feet of water that’s taken over your whole environment.”
On Sunday, a neighbor kayaked through the community snapping pictures of homes after FEMA workers told people to evacuate earlier this week as the Caw Caw Swamp began to rise.
The swamp overflowed because it wasn’t able to flow into the already swollen Waccamaw River.
Schroeder is hopeful her garage will be the only part of her home that floods.
“If the water line I was shown is staying where they told me it is right now, hopefully, it only entered my garage and the losses will be minimal,” she said.
Like Schroeder, Janette McLean returned to the area to see if she could finally make it home. She has been gone since Thursday.
Floodwater prevented her from getting to her house just a block away.
“We know we have water in the garage. We just hope we don’t have water in the house,” McLean said. “We’ll just have to get home and inspect everything when we can get there.”
Neighbors said they believe the water won’t clear out until Tuesday.
Another concern for Brunswick Plantation residents is the sewer plant nearby. It defaulted so sewage has flowed into the water flooding the neighborhood.
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