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Residents press Whiteville leaders over recurring flooding as staff outlines multi-year projects
Summary
Residents described repeated downtown and neighborhood flooding after a recent heavy rain and urged faster action. City staff said the storm equated to a roughly 25-year rain event, outlined past projects and grant funding, and warned that remaining solutions would require multimillion-dollar investments and time.
Whiteville residents told the City Council that repeated, sometimes severe, flooding of downtown and South White Oak is causing property damage, business disruption and growing frustration, while city staff described engineering studies and a series of staged projects intended to reduce future flood impacts.
Resident John Dean said volunteers compiled historical maps and GIS data showing three centuries of landscape change that the group says has narrowed and redirected natural drainage: "the rising floodwaters is 1 system symptom resulting from 3 centuries of combined historical decisions," Dean said, urging science-based, long-term solutions.
Several business owners and long-term residents recounted floods that followed comparatively modest rainfall, including water inside an 80-year-old downtown building. A retired U.S. Army engineer, Cecil Nance, commended the…
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