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Residents concerned about flooding in Union County neighborhood

By John Paul, wsoctv.com
By John Paul, wsoctv.com

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — The floodwaters in Union County are receding Friday night, but concern is only growing in one neighborhood.

Homeowners said the roads seem to flood every time it rains.

Several times in the last six months people have been trapped in the subdivision off Shannon Road, so Channel 9 went to the county to see what's being done.

“We can't get out of our developments. We can't get back in. Can't get, the kids have a problem getting to school. The school buses won't come through it. God forbid there is an emergency,” Rich Parillo said.

Parillo has had enough. He said the flooding is getting out of hand and his neighbors in Shannon Vista agree.

“The whole road is underwater. It's like a river going through very fast,” Anita Byrnes said.

Parillo and Byrnes have lived in the neighborhood for years and say it didn't start getting bad until recently.

Since August, places like Lawyers and Shannon roads have flooded multiple times. But there has been very heavy rain.

Channel 9 spoke with the emergency manager, who said they've gotten more complaints in recent months.

They have a group trying to find the source of the problem, but so far don't know why roads seem to be flooding more.

Any changes would have to be made by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Channel 9 went to them for answers. They said the drainage is designed to handle normal rainfall, but Union County has seen extreme weather lately.

“In order for us to upgrade all of our structures, our pipes and culverts to handle any kind of storm intensity that we get it would be cost prohibitive,” NCDOT spokeswoman Ashley Jordan Walker said.

However, if they get consistent flooding during normal rain they'll look into it. Residents think development is the root cause and it's only going to get worse.

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