After days of tropical storm-induced rain, the northeast Cape Fear river in Burgaw finally crested early Tuesday morning at approximately 16.5 feet — half a foot over what the National Weather Service classifies as major flood levels.
The flooding in Burgaw has primarily affected residents of the River Birch and River Bend subdivisions off Highway 53. Many of the homes, including Larry Owens's house, are now surrounded by floodwaters.
"We put everything upstairs," Owens told WHQR. "All the furniture on blocks, so you know, you have another four inches if [the water] came into the house."
Owens and his wife live in downtown Burgaw, but own another house on the banks of the Cape Fear River. This week, the water came level with his elevated porch.
"It was last week at three feet," he said.
Burgaw is not the only place impacted by flooding in Pender County. Highway 210 is closed in two places — on the Sampson County border near Beattys Bridge and on the Bladen County border near Maple Hill — due to flooding in the Black River. The waters near Lane Ferry on Highway 210 are still rising and will likely crest later this week.
But Tommy Batson, the director of Pender County Emergency Management, said in Burgaw, the water is starting to drop.
"It has started dropping. It's dropped 0.21 feet," he told WHQR. "And that water will continue to drop over the next week at NC Highway 53."
Batson says that if the rain holds out, the Department of Transportation could reopen Highway 53 by Sunday.
In the meantime, he's asking motorists to stop driving around highway barricades. Batson said Pender County Emergency Management and state Swift boat rescue teams have saved multiple drivers since the roads closed.
"We continue to have people going around barricades and driving into flooded waters," he said. "We get out there and we pull them up, pull them out… Turn around, don't drown."
For more updates on flooding, go to water.noaa.gov.
