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Fay's remnants bring heavy rains
Journal photo by Paul Garber
The water rises in Salem Creek near the Southeast Gateway this morning.
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Published: August 27, 2008
Updated: 08/27/2008 05:57 pm
Heavy rain from remnants of Tropical Storm Fay overwhelmed storm drains, flooded streams and prompted tornado warnings today throughout a wide swath of central North Carolina.
Officials in Charlotte said flooding there was the worst in decades, and they expected more troubles as forecasters called for more showers and thunderstorms tonight. The National Weather Service reissued a flash flood watch for the Charlotte area until late tonight.
Although the weather was threatening in several area, there had been no reports of injury or deaths from the storm by the afternoon, said Julia Jarema, spokeswoman for the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.
Jarema said most of the severe problems with flooding appeared to be in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties, but none had requested state help.
Gov. Mike Easley directed state damage assessment teams to flooded areas in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties.
A tornado watch for Forsyth and Guilford counties expired at 5 p.m.
At Smith Reynolds Airport, 2.89 inches of rain had fallen in the 24 hours between about 8 a.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today.
At one point this morning, Duke Energy reported that more than 5,000 Forsyth customers were without power. That number was down to 4 by 3 p.m.
Wilkes County had spotty power outages, with Duke Energy reporting 302 power outages at 3 p.m.
Students were dismissed at 12:30 p.m. at North Wilkesboro Elementary School because of a partial power outage. The problem was in an underground power line that officials suspect was affected by the soaked ground.
A number of roads were closed temporarily in Northwest North Carolina due to localized flooding. Cotton Mill bridge on the Roaring River in Wilkes County was closed. A tree fell across Traphill Road, temporarily blocking the morning's last school bus from reaching North Wilkes High School, school officials said.
In Watauga County, there was flooding on roads along the Watauga River and South Fork of the New River, including Bamboo Road, where traffic was detoured, said Watauga Emergency Management Coordinator Steve Sudderth. He said a tree blocked Castleford Road this morning before it was cleared.
The flash flood warnings for Wilkes and Watauga counties have been cancelled.
Officials in Northwest North Carolina reported 3 to 5 inches of rain so far this week, with some areas getting as much as 7 or 8 inches of rain.
The water treatment plant in North Wilkesboro reported 4.75 inches of rain since Tuesday, said Dale Shumate, the town's utilities director. The town imposed mandatory water restrictions a month ago because of the drought.
The stream flow at North Wilkesboro's water source, the Reddies River, had been as low as 11 cubic feet per second, or about 82 gallons per second, earlier this month. The rains brought it back to 2,310 cubic feet per second, or about 17,280 gallons per second.
"It's up tremendously," Shumate said. "It sure is much welcome rain. I hope we can keep getting some along." The town is waiting for 7 continuous days of steady improved stream flow before ending the restrictions, which have cut usage by about 150,000 gallons a day.
The town of Blowing Rock, also severely affected by the drought, got enough rain to add nearly two feet of water to the town's 47-million gallon reservoir. The reservoir had been nearly 3 ½ feet below full pond last week.
"It's pretty good timing," said the town's Utility Director Johnny Lentz, who reported more than 5 inches of rain in Blowing Rock. "Hopefully we will have our reservoir at full pond by the end of the week."
The system brought showers and thunderstorms across the western and central parts of the state last night. The rains are expected to last throughout the day, said Anita Silverman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Blacksburg, Va.
"It's going to be slow-moving," she said. "Especially in the mountains, the chance of rain will continue into tomorrow morning."
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