Swamped by rain, Ocean Acres pleads for help
Things look a little better for now, but when the rain comes, the water has nowhere to go.
Ditches are brimming throughout the Outer Banks, and in Ocean Acres and Whispering Pines, water has been rising into homes after heavy rain. And there has been a lot of heavy rain lately.
“If we had one house fall into the ocean, it would be national news,” Michael Frasca recently told Kill Devil Hills commissioners.
Unusually high amounts of rain in recent months have pushed the water table, normally 4 feet down, so high that is is now at the surface. Commissioner Bob Peele said that 12 inches of rain can raise the water table 2.5 feet. The topography of the area is a basin of sorts, and newer construction has covered vacant lots that once would collect the water.
There is nowhere to send the water. Routing it to the sound or ocean would not be allowed under coastal management regulations.
Similar stories can be told elsewhere on the Outer Banks. Chronic flooding can be seen on property between the highways and along U.S. 158 in Kitty Hawk. There has also been some flooding in neighborhoods behind Belk.
Commissioners were sympathetic at their meeting last month. But a short-term solution will be elusive.
Michael Frasca asks town commissioners for help Wednesday. By Russ Lay, The Outer Banks Voice
Some measures are already in the works. Commissioners approved an extra $50,000 to help deal with the problem. And crews are working to channel the water off the streets and out of yards.
Frasca said that at one point he counted as many as 40 homes with standing water problems.
Town engineer Pete Burkhimer said that staffers are looking into longer-term solutions. One of the problems is that there is not an efficient drainage system in the neighborhoods.
Still, said Commissioner Bob Woodard, “I want to know what we can do tomorrow to help these people out.”
Woodard asked if tanker trucks could be brought in to haul the water out and spread it over farm fields on the mainland.
“It’s possible,” said Burkhimer, “but it will take hundreds and hundreds” of tanker trucks. He said he would research the idea.
Some work is already being done.
Compounding problems is that some residents have removed manhole covers to try to drain the water. Commissioners urged them to stop to avoid a bigger and more expensive problem: overtaxing the sewer system.
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newjake says:
Good story, this is a challenge. In our neighborhood, we keep seeing people filling in the water storage basins to put in a pool or landscaping. Crazy. Then they freak when the water is lapping at their door during a storm.
Fred Castellow says:
I see two long-term solutions, 1. install drains to the outfall at Pigmas, 2. the real solution would be to drain the fresh pond at least 2/3 ft. below the lowest point in this area.The pond has been decommissioned for water use, none is used and equipment removed. So why not drain it down? Should it ever be needed,the system can be reinstalled and used. In the long run, that would be cheaper than paying for sewer discharge since they are pumping double of the allocation most days since the floods. Nags Head agrees, why dont we ?