Wilson County homeowners and businesses impacted by flooding days after Debby

Saturday, August 10, 2024
LUCAMA, N.C. (WTVD) -- Flooding is continuing to impact residents and businesses in Wilson County.

"It's very scary. It's, you know, an eerie feeling when you see fish swimming in your driveway," said Barrett Hildebrand.

Flood waters completely surrounded her home in Lucama.

"We are literally an island, the house is an island, and yeah, the water was passing over our front just to be able to get into our driveway. Then obviously it goes all the way around the back of our shop as well. So it's literally all the way encompassing," she said

All the rain from Tropical Storm Debby flooded the creek next to the Hildebrand's property, which is in a flood zone. The high waters started to recede on Saturday before making it into their home.



"This is one of the worst times we have seen," she said.

Throughout Wilson County, there are several roads and businesses still closed due to high waters. Besides the flooding, several homeowners in the county were also impacted by the tornado that hit during the storm.

Hildebrand owns Brand Performing Arts Center, a dance studio in Wilson. She said one of her dancer's homes was destroyed during the tornado.

"Just everything is gone. Their home has just been demolished. Trees are everywhere and now their business also is underwater. So they got it kind of hit both ways and that's so difficult for a family that has three children that are trying to just live. It's been hard," Hildebrand said.

She said she wants to try and help the community not only recover from Debby but also said she has reached out to Wilson County leaders to try and work on solutions to prevent future flooding.



"I think the issue is the fact that we've got to come up with a conclusion of how to let water out of our reservoir before storms and things like this happen, just to make sure that we're taking care of our citizens," Hildebrand said. "We're taking care of our community and making sure that we're not allowing so much flooding just to happen."
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