Matthew flooded them out; Florence could do the same

Sept. 11--Mike Hopkins spent Monday cleaning out his garage on Delaware Drive, hoping to avoid a repeat of the destructive floodwater brought by Hurricane Matthew nearly two years earlier.

That's a day Hopkins and his family won't soon forget. One minute the floodwater was lapping at their front step. The next, it was coming into their house, so high that rescue workers used a canoe to get Hopkins' wife to safety.

Hopkins estimates that about 6 inches of water covered the first floor of his home, enough to ruin almost everything. It was the same story for many other homeowners in Stonebridge, a higher-end neighborhood off Robeson Street that backs up to Blounts Creek.

The creek is the source of the residents' problems.

Hopkins' neighbor, former Terry Sanford High School Principal Al Miller, said the creek has overflowed its banks and flooded his yard seven times since Hurricane Matthew. The water hasn't reached his house since then, but Miller suspects it will if Hurricane Florence stays on its projected collision course with North Carolina.

"If we get as much rain as they are saying, we will have the same problems," said Miller, who had to rebuild the first floor of his home after Hurricane Matthew. Miller said it took six months to rebuild, and he will never recoup all of his losses.

"I'm fearful" of Hurricane Florence, said Miller, who had gone to Boone to retrieve a generator and check on property he owns there.

Since Hurricane Matthew, Miller has been a leading neighborhood advocate, attending Fayetteville Stormwater Division meetings and trying to get the city to do more to stop -- or at least limit -- the flooding.

So far, he said, the city has done little to improve Blounts Creek or to find federal or state money that could be used to buy out affected properties. Miller said 26 homes in his neighborhood had water damage from Hurricane Matthew. Nine of those homes experienced significant flooding, he said.

"Mike and I both are living in a constant state of worrying," Miller said.

There's not much else they can do. Unlike other areas of the city, their neighborhood doesn't qualify for public assistance.

The city has agreed to buy and raze at least 21 homes that lie in floodplains and were severely flooded by Hurricane Matthew. The money comes from the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program -- or HMGP. Under the program, the Federal Emergency Management Agency pays 75 percent of the costs of acquisition and demolition and the state pays the remaining 25 percent. Nine of the houses in Fayetteville to be acquired and razed are on Louise Street or the adjoining Louise Circle in the Hollywood Heights neighborhood off Skibo Road.

City officials sent letters to about 675 property owners whom they thought may qualify for HMGP funding, which can be used to buy and demolish eligible homes, or elevate or rebuild them. The city received more than 200 responses from people wanting to join the program. Of those, only 21 homes have qualified.

The purpose of HMGP is to ensure that the same losses don't reoccur during the next natural disaster.

But Delaware Drive residents were excluded from the program, and Assistant City Manager Jay Reinstein said there appears to be little that can be done to help them, at least anytime soon.

Reinstein said he arranged a meeting recently with Miller and other neighborhood residents, along with representatives of the Governor's Office, N.C. Emergency Management officials and City Councilman Johnny Dawkins. The group toured the neighborhood, but it apparently did little good.

"The best option would be for residents to have their properties bought out but there currently is no funding identified to do so," Reinstein said in an email. "It's really in the hands of the State."

Miller believes his flooding problems are caused by the tremendous amount of development in areas that drain into Blounts Creek. The creek can no longer handle all of the runoff, he said.

When he built his home in 2002, Miller said, only the back of his land was in the floodplain. To be safe, he said, he had the house constructed 3 feet higher than what was deemed necessary at the time. The Fayetteville Observer's archives show no residential flooding in that area dating to 1993.

At some point, Miller said, redrawn maps showed that his and surrounding homes were in the floodplain, and residents were told to buy flood insurance. After Hurricane Matthew, he said, the maps now show that the back of his property is in a floodway, a term FEMA uses for highly restrictive areas next to rivers, streams and other waterways.

Miller thinks a solution, other than buying out the property owners, is to dredge and widen Blounts Creek. He knows that would come at tremendous expense. But he said he also knows that "our stormwater plan that we've had has just not worked."

Miller's neighborhood was not the only one along Blounts Creek to flood. Floodwater also ravaged 93 Habitat for Humanity homes and many other houses in the Old Wilmington Road community off Gillespie Street.

Reinstein said state officials have told the city not to dredge and widen the creek because of extremely high cost and environmental concerns.

The city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on stream debris removal through grant funding from the nonprofit Golden Leaf Foundation, Reinstein said. Blounts Creek was among the streams that benefited from that money, he said.

Hopkins operates a food truck, which was also flooded in Hurricane Matthew. He believes removing debris in Blounts Creek will do little to stop the flooding of his home if Hurricane Florence stays on its current course.

But at least he's better prepared this time. So are his neighbors.

Across the street from Miller and Hopkins, Cal and Allison Violette were also cleaning out their garage and taking the contents to a storage shelter for safe keeping. They, too, experienced extensive flood damage from Hurricane Matthew.

Miller, Hopkins and the Violettes all have flood insurance, but they aren't taking any chances, not with the memories of Hurricane Matthew still so fresh in their minds.

Within the next day or so, they will have finished cleaning out their garages and moving everything on their lower floors to higher ground.

There is only one thing left.

"Just pray that we don't flood again," Miller said. "That is all we can do."

Staff writer Greg Barnes can be reached at gbarnes@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3525.

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