NC Towns Plead For Dam, Levee Upgrades After 2nd Major Flood In 2 Years

"LUMBERTON, N.C. — Paddling through the swamp that was once her front yard Tuesday morning, Megan Curry saw this waterlogged community through the eyes of someone who had lived there all her life.

That trash-strewn waterway was really a paved road. Those submerged shingles were the roof of the shed that held Curry’s childhood Christmas ornaments. And this sodden structure — with its walls buckling, its stairs crumbling, its floorboards detached from the foundation and floating in a foot of water — this was home. It was the house her grandfather built, on land her great-great-grandparents cleared, the house her family had finished repairing just 11 months ago in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.

But out there was the Lumber River, normally so distant it’s not even visible through the trees, now sloshing into her living room for the second time in as many years."

Sarah Kaplan reports for the Washington Post September 18, 2018.

SEE ALSO:

"Flooding Raises Concerns About Dam Failures" (AP)

"Carolina Dams Hold Up — For Now" (Greenwire)

Source: Washington Post, 09/19/2018