Floods ravage dozens of homes in Mecklenburg, emergency declared in Caldwell, Catawba

As floodwaters from the Catawba River began to recede Monday, the extent of damage from heavy weekend rains to homes, roads and peoples’ lives started to come into view.

In parts of Mecklenburg, Catawba, Caldwell and Gaston counties streets were closed, homes were flooded — some with up to seven feet of water — and authorities said they didn’t know when displaced residents would be able to return.

Emergency workers rescued nearly 40 people, including four more on Monday, from homes about 12 miles northwest of uptown Charlotte in the Mountain Island area, officials said.

As many as 100 homes in the area sustained flood damage, said John Wendel, a spokesman for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, who helped authorities survey the damage Monday.

He and other officials said they did not know how many people left the area during a voluntary evacuation.

About a dozen people sought refuge at a Red Cross shelter set up at Hopewell High School in Huntersville.

That’s where Susan Covington slept Sunday night.

Covington said she had just moved into a house in Mountain Island over the weekend.

She left town briefly Sunday and when she returned, Covington said she found her house swamped with two to three feet of water.

Covington said she was hysterical at first, and that she spent an hour walking around “just sobbing, just like looking at stuff.”

“I just hung the pictures,” Covington said. “I just unloaded my last boxes.”

Higher elevation

The flood water did not spread damage evenly, officials said.

While surveying damage in Mountain Island, Wendel said homes that were elevated on stilts suffered relatively little damage compared to those that were not.

In one case, he said, a home that was elevated on stilts avoided the deluge. Two cars parked underneath it were flooded, Wendel said.

Mecklenburg County officials have long advised residents on Mountain Island Lake and other flood-prone neighborhoods to protect homes against flooding.

They offer grants to qualified property owners willing to elevate their houses with stilts and other tools or take lesser steps such as raising air conditioning units to higher places. Under the retrofit program, the county reimburses residents anywhere from 75 percent to 90 percent of the costs.

Since 2015, however, only about two dozen people countywide have received help through the program, said David Love, project manager for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services.

One property owner in Mountain Island has had an application approved, Love said.

He said few people have taken advantage of the program because elevating a home can cost as much as $100,000. Many don’t want to pay the upfront cost unless they are forced, Love said.

Relief on the way?

Rains across the Charlotte area caused the worst flooding to hit Mountain Island Lake since at least 2004, officials said. They said the Catawba River reached nearly seven feet above full pond, which describes the point at which a body of water begins to overflow.

In 2004, the last time severe flooding lashed Mountain Island, the river went four feet over full pond.

“There are boats floating away because they were tied to trees that fell into the water,” said Wendel of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services.

Wendel said authorities won’t be able to assess the full scale of the damage until the waters recede more.

In a tweet Monday, Catawba emergency officials reported nearly 20 road closures and numerous calls about downed trees.

Officials in Caldwell and Catawba counties declared a State of Emergency, according to a report from WBTV, the Observer’s news partner. By declaring the emergency, both counties can begin a “coordinated response” to the recovery efforts throughout the region, the television station said.

In York County, S.C., authorities were nervously monitoring Lake Wylie, according to a report from The (Rock Hill) Herald.

As of Monday afternoon, Lake Wylie sat just inches below its full pond level, the report said. Debris — including pieces of docks and a gazebo railing — flowed near the Buster Boyd Bridge.

The weather forecast may offer some relief.

Doug Outlaw, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said starting Tuesday there is no rain in the forecast for the affected areas until at least the weekend.

“It should be nothing like we have had,” Outlaw said. “We had over a foot of rain fall in three days. That’s why you have seen flooding from lakes all along the Catawba River.”

No flood insurance

At the Red Cross shelter, clients did not know if or when they could return to their homes.

On Monday afternoon, they were told that a shuttle meant to transport people home had been canceled for the day.

Hannah Sanborn, a local emergency services planner, said that firefighters and other emergency workers were investigating the possibility of downed live wires in the floodwaters, and were advising residents not to try to make their way home.

Some people said they would stay with family or check into hotels. Others had to remain in the shelter.

Covington, who recently moved to Mountain Island, planned to go to her house Monday to see what she could recover.

She said she planned to salvage what she could. Covington said she does not have flood insurance because it is expensive.

“We didn’t know what to do,” Covington said. “We’ve only seen (floods) in the movies.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2019 at 6:33 AM.