GREENVILLE — The cresting of the Tar River early Friday morning gave Pitt County residents a glimpse of the light at the end of a very wet tunnel, but that beam also shone on the long road to recovery ahead.
Hurricane Matthew brought up to 18 inches of rain to parts of eastern North Carolina during a 48-hour period last weekend, causing flooding, mandatory evacuations and damaging an estimated 400 to 500 properties. Dozens died around North Carolina.
Greenville Mayor Allen Thomas, U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (R-Wilson), state Sen. Don Davis (D-Snow Hill) and several other city and county officials described what they had found after an extensive tour Thursday. They spoke of a city that seemed to be prepared for the storm and ready to clean up afterward.
“We deployed into the very center of these areas that are flooded,” Thomas said of Thursday morning’s trip. “We saw some very tragic things. We saw some properties that, many properties that are going to be (lost), that may not be able to come back.”
Hurricane Matthew is the second storm to have a devastating effect on Greenville in the past two decades. The city experienced catastrophic damage in 1999, when flooding from Hurricane Floyd destroyed 7,000 houses, necessitated the rescue of nearly 1,500 residents and killed 35 people across the region.
Although Floyd has been dubbed the “Flood of the Century” for its destruction, it also provided lessons on how eastern North Carolinians can prepare in these situations, lessons that Thomas said served well this past week.
“Properties were (elevated), and it did my heart good to see some that were completely surrounded by water, but their properties were up.”
Said Butterfield: “We cannot control national disasters. That is beyond our control. But what we can do is control the response to the national disasters.”
Immediate response
When weather officials began discussing the effect Matthew could have on Greenville, Thomas said the experience with Floyd helped the city respond more efficiently than it had in 1999.
“We knew what we had to do,” he said.
The city began by enacting its emergency operations center about 4 p.m. on Oct. 7. Thirty minutes later, Thomas declared a state of emergency in the city, allowing law enforcement officials to restrict or deny access to areas expected to be hit with rising floodwaters.
In addition, Pitt County Emergency Management, in conjunction with the American Red Cross, opened two general population shelters at local elementary schools that same afternoon, providing residents expecting evacuation with a place to take refuge.
Less than 24 hours later Hurricane Matthew made landfall southeast of McClellanville, S.C., as a Category 1 storm. Although residents had been expecting the storm for days, the amount and location of some of the flooding surprised many people.
“That night we saw flooding in places we’ve never had flooding before,” said Rebekah Thurston, the public information officer for Greenville’s Fire/Rescue department. Thurston used the department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to warn residents of high water, stranded cars and motorists and road closures, and to give official updates.
Several area businesses, including the Greenville Mall and various restaurants, made the decision to close early Saturday afternoon as roads began to steadily retain water. Within hours, Greenville Utilities Commission was responding to reports of downed power lines and outages throughout the county.
By 9:40 p.m. Oct. 8, an estimated 8,500 customers of Greenville Utilities were without power.
As law enforcement officials responded to call after call of stranded motorists and vehicles stalled in the floodwaters, Thomas signed a curfew into effect Saturday night leading into Sunday. The next morning, officers patrolling Greenville and Pitt County reported crumbling roadways, additional flooding, downed power lines and trees that had fallen on roads.
Tweets from the city of Greenville, Greenville police and Thurston were littered with phrases including “road closed due to concerns with integrity,” “avoid area,” “just because it’s daylight doesn’t mean it’s time to go explore,” and the most popular, “stay off the roads!”
Late in the afternoon of Oct. 9, city officials announced mandatory and voluntary evacuation zones for people who most likely would be affected by flooding. In addition, Thomas signed a second curfew notice for the area. This curfew, in some form or another, has remained in effect throughout the week for areas of Greenville under evacuation.
With several schools being used as shelters and floodwaters continuing to rise, Pitt County Schools closed for the week. Although shelters had been consolidated from five into three as of Friday afternoon, it remained unclear when the school system would return to a normal schedule. East Carolina University students, who were on fall break during that weekend, were advised Monday that classes were canceled for the remainder of the week and that they should remain at home until further notice. Classes now will resume Tuesday. As the damage became more apparent and with flood levels still rising, state officials displayed a steady presence in eastern North Carolina. Assistance from agencies such as FEMA and the Red Cross has also been prominent in the days since Hurricane Matthew struck.
“(The United States Department of Agriculture) is on the ground. FEMA is on the ground. Red Cross is on the ground,” Butterfield said. “All of the federal resources we have at our disposal will be available to the people of Pitt County.”
Thomas encouraged residents who believed they would be in need of state or federal assistance to begin the process of applying immediately if possible, noting that eastern North Carolina had joined Florida, South Carolina and Georgia as victims of the storm, and there was a “pecking order.”
Fortunately for residents, returning life to normal is one the highest priorities for officials. Davis, who represents Greene, Lenoir and Pitt counties, said the hands-on look he received of the damage during Thursday’s tour helped him gain an idea of what the area truly needs and reinforced his commitment to working with everyone necessary to start the recovery process as soon as possible.
“I’ve really been able to assess what’s taking place,” he said. “You can see the aerials, you can go around, but to actually go through and see what is literally taking place right in front of you is just amazing.”
Said Thomas: “We wanted to show Congressman Butterfield and his staff and FEMA what’s really going on.As Senator Davis says, looking at it from above does it no justice.”
The next steps
City and local leaders have worked together with state and national officials to establish how to begin the recovery process.
“I will continue to, with this assessment, move forward with those conversations to make sure that we do everything at all levels, including the state level, to make sure that resources are made available as we look forward to moving forth with the recovery,” Davis said. “I can also say we’ve been on the phone constantly with the governor’s office, and they’ve also been very helpful too with getting the resources here.”
Said Thomas: “It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’re going to need assistance on the state and federal level, and we’re going to continue on an hour-by-hour process at working through this.”
Details announcing a plan for inspection and re-entry of homes was expected to be announced late Friday. Thomas described how an inspection process would take place, to include “what neighborhoods that we will slowly go in with a grid, mark off those neighborhoods, and allow families to start to re-enter those areas and begin our rehab process to get those properties and the infrastructure of those areas back in shape.”
Part of the recovery process has been aided by the number of volunteers who have committed time, energy and resources to the people who were forced to evacuate.
Helping out
Greenville resident Stacy Huff wasn’t home during the storm’s impact, but she and her husband, Matt, were able to keep up with the damage through their neighborhood’s social media page.
“We were told water on our street had risen to the mailboxes, and at least one car had flooded,” she said.
After returning home and realizing the worst damage to their house was a few missing shingles, Huff and her husband drove around the Greenville area and visited the Town Common on the banks of the Tar River.
“On Day One after the storm, the water was maybe a foot over the bottom of a ‘no parking’ sign,” Huff said. “When we returned on Day Two, the walkway was covered, and water was to the top of the brick wall that runs along the walkway. The no parking sign was nearly covered.
“We also saw homes by the river already being flooded, doors covered in sandbags and evacuation orders, and people working to get their belongings out of their homes as the river was still rising.”
Rather than spending their time at home in the days after the storm, Huff and her husband volunteered at Cyprus Glen Nursing Home, which was under mandatory evacuation orders, by filling sandbags and maneuvering them into place.
Despite the fairly insignificant damage to their home, Huff said the lack of a visual was awful.
“It was very scary not knowing what was happening to our home during the storm,” she said. “I cannot imagine what those who have had to evacuate are going through as they are waiting to see what the waters did to their homes.”
As residents prepare to re-enter their homes and make repairs, Thomas encouraged diligence on the part of homeowners looking for assistance in returning their homes to habitable conditions.
“Work with reputable organizations. We want that to be clear. Be very careful who you decide to contract with to make a repair on your property. There are literally people who go around the country and follow weakness and where people are vulnerable and take advantage of them. Don’t let anyone come in and take advantage of the vulnerable. We’re not going to allow that to happen.”
However, if the volunteer lists are any indication, the residents of eastern North Carolina will have few problems finding those willing to help.
“This is a resilient, resilient and wonderful community,” Davis said. “This is when your community shines — how you respond.
“I just can’t tell you how inspired I am by the many stories you’ve heard of people looking after neighbors, and what eastern North Carolina, and what Greenville, is all about.”
