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Cumberland County installs five stream gauges to improve flood monitoring after hurricanes
Summary
Cumberland County emergency management presented a multi-agency project to install five stream gauges, funded by a Duke Energy Foundation grant and supported by the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, to expand real-time flood monitoring and warnings in vulnerable communities.
Cumberland County emergency management on Monday described a new stream‑gauge network installed to expand flood monitoring after short warning times during hurricanes Matthew and Florence.
Interim Emergency Management Director Gary Crumplum told the Board of Commissioners the county received a $27,650 award from the Duke Energy Foundation’s accelerator grant program to install gauges at multiple points, and that supply‑chain cost increases during the COVID‑19 pandemic reduced the installed number from six to five. Crumplum said the gauges measure water stage and, in some cases, flow, and feed data into the publicly accessible state stream‑gage network the county uses for warnings and evacuation planning.
“Stream gauges are instruments designed to measure water stages on rivers and other tributaries here in Cumberland County,” Crumplum said. “We use these stream gauges to help predict evacuation areas in case of inland flooding during hurricanes or tornadoes.”
Crumpelum identified installed locations including Little Rockfish Creek near Spring Lake, Blacksbridge Road downstream of Lake Upchurch, Jump Around Creek in Spring Lake, Linden near the Sampson County line, and a site at the Sampson–Cumberland line. He said many county waterways begin in the northern part of the county and flow south toward New Hanover County, making upstream monitoring important for downstream communities.
Crumpelum showed photographs of the gauges and said county staff found one unit vandalized shortly before the presentation: “You can see the solar panel was removed and the wires were cut,” he said, urging residents to report vandalism to emergency management.
Crumpelum also credited the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) and the regional ARISE (Regional Innovations for Strong Economies and Environments) work that helped identify mitigation projects. Andrea Webster of NCORR was presented with a county certificate of appreciation during the meeting for the office’s support of local mitigation initiatives.
Commissioners said the gauges respond to lessons learned after Matthew and Florence, when officials said they had less than 24 hours’ notice of some evacuation needs. Commissioners asked staff to continue pursuing state and federal resources to augment mitigation work and noted the county’s ongoing focus on recovery for residents still displaced by prior storms.
The county’s stream‑gage data feed into the state network that allows users to find the nearest gauge and set alerts. Crumplum said the gauges support forecasting, warning, and planning for potential recovery efforts.
