Hurricane Florence: The Aftermath
Published 12:10 am Tuesday, September 18, 2018
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST School maintenance workers and Liberty Fire Department personnel responded to the report of the water tower behind Morgan Elementary School had fallen on Sunday afternoon. Personnel reported that the water tower was filled with 4,500 gallons of water when it collapsed. The tower clipped the corner of a mobile classroom and damaged a wooden walkway. The tower held in reserve water supply for the school as well as adding water pressure to the system. A granite pump house next to the tower was slightly damaged.
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST School maintenance workers and Liberty Fire Department personnel responded to the report of the water tower behind Morgan Elementary School had fallen on Sunday afternoon. Personnel reported that the water tower was filled with 4,500 gallons of water when it collapsed. The tower clipped the corner of a mobile classroom and damaged a wooden walkway. The tower held in reserve water supply for the school as well as adding water pressure to the system. A granite pump house next to the tower was slightly damaged.
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST School maintenance workers and Liberty Fire Department personnel responded to the report of the water tower behind Morgan Elementary School had fallen on Sunday afternoon. Personnel reported that the water tower was filled with 4,500 gallons of water when it collapsed. The tower clipped the corner of a mobile classroom and damaged a wooden walkway. The tower held in reserve water supply for the school as well as adding water pressure to the system. A granite pump house next to the tower was slightly damaged.
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST School maintenance workers and Liberty Fire Department personnel responded to the report of the water tower behind Morgan Elementary School had fallen on Sunday afternoon. Personnel reported that the water tower was filled with 4,500 gallons of water when it collapsed. The tower clipped the corner of a mobile classroom and damaged a wooden walkway. The tower held in reserve water supply for the school as well as adding water pressure to the system. A granite pump house next to the tower was slightly damaged.
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST School maintenance workers and Liberty Fire Department personnel responded to the report of the water tower behind Morgan Elementary School had fallen on Sunday afternoon. Personnel reported that the water tower was filled with 4,500 gallons of water when it collapsed. The tower clipped the corner of a mobile classroom and damaged a wooden walkway. The tower held in reserve water supply for the school as well as adding water pressure to the system. A granite pump house next to the tower was slightly damaged.
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST School maintenance workers and Liberty Fire Department personnel responded to the report of the water tower behind Morgan Elementary School had fallen on Sunday afternoon. Personnel reported that the water tower was filled with 4,500 gallons of water when it collapsed. The tower clipped the corner of a mobile classroom and damaged a wooden walkway. The tower held in reserve water supply for the school as well as adding water pressure to the system. A granite pump house next to the tower was slightly damaged.
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST A pine tree up rooted and fell on Larry and Varina Bunts home on Depot Street in Rockwell on Sunday morning. No one was injured but the roof had been damaged. Owners were going to cover the roof and wait for their insurance adjuster. Midway through Sunday morning to noon, parts of Rowan County have been reported to have received 3-5 inches of rain. More rain is expected to fall across the county as the day continues. Down trees, power lines (power outages) are the main effects so far for residents. .ROCKWELL, NC. (09/16/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Ryan Starrett and Jeff Motes work to remove the limbs of a fallen bradford pear tree that fell onto the side of the Faith Internal Medicine on Sunday morning. fortunately, the damage to the build seems to be gutter system and little structural damage. Midway through Sunday morning to noon, parts of Rowan County have been reported to have received 3-5 inches of rain. More rain is expected to fall across the county as the day continues. Down trees, power lines (power outages) are the main effects so far for residents. . FAITH, NC. (09/16/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Utilities crew work to repair damaged lines on Market Street in Rockwell on Sunday morning. A large portion of Rockwell was without power for extended periods of time. Midway through Sunday morning to noon, parts of Rowan County have been reported to have received 3-5 inches of rain. More rain is expected to fall across the county as the day continues. Down trees, power lines (power outages) are the main effects so far for residents. . ROCKWELL, NC. (9/16/18)
Utilities crew work to repair damaged lines on Market Street in Rockwell in September. JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Utilities crew work to repair damaged lines on Market Street in Rockwell on Sunday morning. A large portion of Rockwell was without power for extended periods of time. Midway through Sunday morning to noon, parts of Rowan County have been reported to have received 3-5 inches of rain. More rain is expected to fall across the county as the day continues. Down trees, power lines (power outages) are the main effects so far for residents. . ROCKWELL, NC. (9/16/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Ryan Starrett and Jeff Motes (not pictured) work to remove the limbs of a fallen bradford pear tree that fell onto the side of the Faith Internal Medicine on Sunday morning. fortunately, the damage to the build seems to be gutter system and little structural damage. Midway through Sunday morning to noon, parts of Rowan County have been reported to have received 3-5 inches of rain. More rain is expected to fall across the county as the day continues. Down trees, power lines (power outages) are the main effects so far for residents. . FAITH, NC. (09/16/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST The visuals of High Rock lake Dam on Bringle Ferry Road on Sunday was unremarkable but will mostly likely conditions will change as rain up stream moves through the Yadkin basin in the days after the tropical depression Florence. Midway through Sunday morning to noon, parts of Rowan County have been reported to have received 3-5 inches of rain. More rain is expected to fall across the county as the day continues. Down trees, power lines (power outages) are the main effects so far for residents. . SALISBURY NC. (9/16/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST The visuals of High Rock lake Dam on Bringle Ferry Road on Sunday was unremarkable but will mostly likely conditions will change as rain up stream moves through the Yadkin basin in the days after the tropical depression Florence. Midway through Sunday morning to noon, parts of Rowan County have been reported to have received 3-5 inches of rain. More rain is expected to fall across the county as the day continues. Down trees, power lines (power outages) are the main effects so far for residents. . SALISBURY NC. (9/16/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Jenna Thompson, a volunteer at Partners in Learning, walked out into waist deep water to rescue two chickens that was in a chicken coop that was surrounded by flood waters behind the Catawba College campus on monday morning. Thompson, then waited with Henny and Little Roo, for staff to come and relocate the chickens to another facilty's chicken coop nearby. . Salisbury, NC. (9/17/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Jenna Thompson, a volunteer at Partners in Learning, walked out into waist deep water to rescue two chickens that was in a chicken coop that was surrounded by flood waters behind the Catawba College campus on monday morning. Thompson, then waited with Henny and Little Roo, for staff to come and relocate the chickens to another facilty's chicken coop nearby. . Salisbury, NC. (9/17/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Jenna Thompson, a volunteer at Partners in Learning, walked out into waist deep water to rescue two chickens that was in a chicken coop that was surrounded by flood waters behind the Catawba College campus on monday morning. Thompson, then waited with Henny and Little Roo, for staff to come and relocate the chickens to another facilty's chicken coop nearby. . Salisbury, NC. (9/17/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Jenna Thompson, a volunteer at Partners in Learning, walked out into waist deep water to rescue two chickens that was in a chicken coop that was surrounded by flood waters behind the Catawba College campus on monday morning. Thompson, then waited with Henny and Little Roo, for staff to come and relocate the chickens to another facilty's chicken coop nearby. . Salisbury, NC. (9/17/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST The water flow of the High Rock dam has increased in volume on Monday morning. With two gates opened to allow more water pass over the top. . Salisbury, NC. (8/8/09)
A high volume of water flows through High Rock dam in September 2018.
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Catwaba College personal were keeping an eye on the wather levels at the athletic fields that runs along Grants Creek. As reports that flooded streets were receeding, the water in the creek was still rising mid-morning as run off continues. . Salisbury, NC. (8/8/09)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Catwaba College personal were keeping an eye on the wather levels at the athletic fields that runs along Grants Creek. As reports that flooded streets were receeding, the water in the creek was still rising mid-morning as run off continues. . Salisbury, NC. (9/17/18)
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST Catwaba College personal were keeping an eye on the wather levels at the athletic fields that runs along Grants Creek. As reports that flooded streets were receeding, the water in the creek was still rising mid-morning as run off continues. . Salisbury, NC. (9/17/18)
The lower end of Catawba College's campus is underwater following a rise in Grant's Creek. Several sports fields are underwater. Partners in Learning, located near the fields, escaped damage to its facilities. Rebecca Rider/Salisbury Post
A worker cleans up the remnants of a flooded Town Creek on East Innes Street. The creek flowed across Innes during heavy rains dumped by Hurricane Florence. Rebecca Rider/Salisbury Post
Catawba College practice fields are under several feet of water following heavy rains. Equipment has been displaced or is under water. Rebecca Rider/Salisbury Post
Partners in Learning's hen house and garden are one of many areas on the lower end of Catawba's campus to receive flood damage. According to Norma Honeycutt, executive director of Partners in Learning, the chickens will be rescued later today. Rebecca Rider/Salisbury Post
Milani, a local dog, wades in the shallower end of what used to be Catawba College's soccer fields. The fields are part of the Grant's Creek flood plain, and are now under several feet of water following hurricane Florence. Rebecca Rider/Salisbury Post
Catawba College's softball field is one of many that flooded following heavy rains. Rebecca Rider/Salisbury Post
By Shavonne Walker
shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com
In parts of Rowan County, Hurricane Florence dumped over 11 inches of water or more, leading to flooding in many neighborhoods, evacuations and downed trees. Area community leaders say they responded as best they could and continue to clean up in the aftermath.
Salisbury City
One of the first areas Salisbury police and fire responded to was Salisbury Mobile Home Park on Bringle Ferry Road, said Police Capt. Melonie Thompson. The site, which has flooded in the past, had some rising waters in areas. When emergency responders arrived, most of the residents had already moved their vehicles to “higher ground” in a nearby median and across the street.
Thompson said many of them planned on staying.
She recalled the water level was so high that the first few mobile homes were surrounded by water. City HR Director Ruth Kennerly acted as an interpreter since the majority of residents in the mobile home park are Spanish speakers.
Emergency officials distributed flyers about storm response and other pertinent information.
Police officers also responded to the Town and Country Mobile Home Park off U.S. 150 where there was high rising water. When officers arrived, a neighbor had just rescued a dog chained outside prior to the flooding.
Thompson said the water rose at Brookview Apartments and in the 1000 block of East Lafayette Street.
For some apartments at Brookview, the water level was at the back door, she said.
There were two older residents taken to the shelter established at the Hurley Family YMCA. Those who were nonambulatory were boarded onto a Salisbury City bus and taken to the shelter.
One police officer found a homeless man who was living in a tent somewhere in a flooded area near Walmart. The officer was able to give the man a ride to the Red Cross and then to the YMCA.
Shelter organizers confirmed four people went to the shelter on Sunday and all have since returned home. The shelter was closed on Monday.
One odd incident that drew police response was a small group swimming in the flood waters near Bojangles at East Innes Street.
She said the people were adults who were getting out of the water by the time police made their way towards them. She said they’d received some phone calls about people swimming in the water.
Thompson said officers told them to get out of the water.
“We are back to normal staffing,” she said of Monday.
Salisbury Fire Department Battalion Chief Jay Baker said there was a joint operations center at Station #1 with the Salisbury Police Department.
Throughout the weekend, city personnel stayed in constant contact with those in the county operations center to monitor conditions.
Baker said they were pretty busy starting around 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., including response to a power outage on East Innes Street and evacuations due to flooding.
“We are in the recovery mode a little bit. We’ve re-closed Old Mocksville Road near Grants Creek because the water was coming back up a little bit,” he said.
Baker said there was good teamwork between the police, fire and city leaders who responded to incidents in the city.
Spencer
“We are still assessing everything this morning. It seems we fared better than most. A lot of our preparations we had taken prior to Florence, especially cleaning out the drainage pipes on 17th Street and other areas prone to flooding really helped,” said Land Management Director Troy Powell.
He said there was a sinkhole on South Yadkin Avenue between 3rd and 4th streets.
Powell said there is a 2-foot by 2-foot hole in the asphalt that extends 5-feet deep and is 4-feet to 5-feet in diameter.
“We can see and hear running water spewing from a water line. Public Works Director Joel Taylor said he notified Salisbury-Rowan Utilities and they were aware of a water line break in that area and had planned to repair it during the road construction of the 4th Street Project. The road has just began collapsing prior to the repairs,” Powell said.
The town of Spencer also reported a few trees down and a power line that was burned apart on South Yadkin Avenue at 4th Street which caused a 3-hour power outage for Spencer and East Spencer around 3:50 p.m. Sunday.
Crews had to shut down the power station in East Spencer to make the repair, according to Duke Energy.
Powell said the dam appears to have held and water was flowing from the auxiliary spillway.
On Monday evening, Powell checked the pond from the park side where he helped state engineers survey the head cut on Thursday prior to the storm. It will be surveyed again to help estimate how much longer the dam would hold.
East Spencer
“We had power outages Friday and Sunday afternoon. There’s a little water here now, but no flooding. We were prepared. It didn’t get as bad as we thought,” said East Spencer Town Administrator F.E. Isenhour.
He commended both the East Spencer police and fire department on their great job responding to incidents as they arose.
On Monday, Isenhour said, they were checking roads and cleaning tree limbs and twigs early. He added that they would also check potholes that will need to be filled.
Granite Quarry
Town Manager Phil Conrad said overall they came through the storm pretty well despite a downed tree across U.S. 52 late Sunday, which has since been removed and some flooding on Main Street.
Public Works Manager Jason Hord said they’d been working since Thursday. He added there were some secondary roads that flooded as well.
“We spent a portion of last week unclogging drains and did that during the storm,” Hord said.
Hord said the staff went back to assess the roads and will do the same throughout the week.
“We appreciate the cooperative partnership with the City of Salisbury, Rockwell and Faith. It was a great team effort,” Conrad said.
Hord said there was a quite a bit of a wash out at Centennial Park and Lake Park and staff are in the process of working there. In the meantime, they’ve temporarily closed the parks and will re-open on Thursday.
Conrad said he’s appreciative of an active town board, all of whom participated in a number of conference calls. They also benefitted from the expertise of an alderman who is a former maintenance supervisor.
Rowan County
The information hotline established for the hurricane will be not be staffed beyond Monday, but residents with questions related to the storm or local impact can continue to call 704-216-8900, option 7 and leave a message, according to County Emergency Services officials.
Rowan Forecaster Steve Monday said preliminary rainfall accumulation around the county ranges from about four inches in the northwest corner of the county near Cleveland to more than 11 inches on the eastern side of the county in areas like Gold Hill, Rockwell and Granite Quarry.
“The worst of the rainfall is over, but look for possible flooding later in the week,” Monday said.
He said rain will be coming from the mountains, but it’s not expected to be significant. More specific totals are expected to be released by the National Weather Service within the next few days.
Landis
Lake Corriher is at a level 2, but is stable, said Landis Town Manager Reed Linn.
Landis Lake is at a level 2 after the levee was damaged during the storm. Officials are talking with state engineers about how to go about repairs.
Linn said the dam is fine and intact.
The town began receding lake levels on Sept. 10 and lowered them by two feet. Landis got 8.5 inches of rain over the weekend.
Linn said the lakes are receding and are in a small watershed area, so they will not flood as water begins to drain.
China Grove
“We were very fortunate as were most of the county,” said China Grove Town Manager Ken Deal.
Deal said there were just a few minor things, but they were prepared to take necessary measures.
The main issue was with Corriher Lake.
“If that dam had been breeched we would have had to evacuate all the residents on Grants Creek. Fortunately, it stopped raining and the water went down before anything happened,” Deal said.
There a few trees down and some minor flooding.
The town personnel is still assessing any damage.
Kannapolis
A few streets were closed due to downed trees and flooding: Trinity Church near Kannapolis Parkway; Dogwood Boulevard at the Creek; Chipola; and Fairview at East First Street.
All roadways were reopened by mid-late morning, officials said.
The trash/recycling is on a one-day delay (Friday routes will be picked up Saturday). Town officials said in order for them to collect tree limbs and other small debris, it must be stacked in piles no larger than 4-foot by 12-foot by 4-foot.
Post reporters Andie Foley, Liz Moomey and Rebecca Rider contributed to this story.
