Rail company blamed for Hurricane Florence flooding in North Carolina town
People who live on the south side of town say
they know where most of the flooding came from during Hurricane Matthew
in 2016: a railroad underpass that intersects Interstate 95.
The
underpass lets the railroad tracks owned by CSX run straight through
the town's protective levees, and locals knew water would rush through
there again once Hurricane Florence bore down on this region of North
Carolina’s Inner Banks, because nothing had been done to stop it.
Flood Destroyed Everything in South Florence
Town leaders have long wanted a permanent solution, such as a floodgate at the underpass, which a study released in May
concluded would save about 2,000 buildings and $232.6 million for a
Matthew-equivalent flood — a more than 80 percent reduction in damage. Florence News
Last
week, with Hurricane Florence approaching, local officials hoped to at
least cover the hole in their levee system with a temporary berm — a
raised barrier built of sand and rock — before the storm.
The
problem, according to local officials, was that CSX would not allow
anyone on to their property to build it, despite Florence’s dire
trajectory.
“We’re talking about a company
that placed life in danger placed millions of dollars of personal
property of individuals in danger to protect their own interests” said
state Sen. Danny Britt, a Republican. “Hopefully this is something that
finally gets CSX off its ass.”
A CSX
spokeswoman, Laura Phelps, acknowledged that Lumberton officials had
approached the company about building the temporary berm, but she said
the line needed to remain open to move hazardous materials out of the
flood zone. Florence Medical News
Italy Government Rescue People in South Florence
"As we prioritize those shipments for the
safety of the community and make sure there’s nothing in the path of the
storm, we’re also balancing requests of bringing equipment in," she
said. "We had a request from the National Guard to transport rescue
vehicles into the local bases. We're balancing all of that."
It
was only on Friday morning of last week, with an order in hand from
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, that Britt was able to organize more than
50 people via Facebook to fill sandbags and build a berm. Florence Political News
Members
of the National Guard and government workers from the area chipped in
to help, moving more than 5,000 wet sandbags and rocks as they were
buffeted by tropical storm winds and pelted by rain. Florence Distribution Services
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