Major road closures continue in Brunswick County after heavy rainfall

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Road closures to have major impacts in the Cape Fear following heavy rains on Monday. 

NCDOT Division Maintenance Engineer Battle Whitley gave an update on road conditions Tuesday.   

The largest road closures are on US 17 near Winnabow and NC 211 headed into Southport.   

211 and East Moore Street in Southport both collapsed.  

Southport Police Chief Todd Coring said the city is essentially cut off from northern Brunswick County.  

“I have a representative from the North Carolina Highway Patrol here in our EOC, and we do not have a clear path from the north end of the county right now,” Coring said. 

Coring logged at least 48 emergency calls since Monday.  

“And that ran from any kind of structure fire response, folks stranded in vehicles in high water, we did have to go and help Dosher Hospital, the entrance was flooded,” Dosher explained. “We had several patients in a neighboring assisted living facility across from Dosher. We had to help move about 16 to 18 patients, relocate them to a dryer area.”  

Residents in need of shelter were relocated to South Brunswick Middle School.  

Whitley said the next step for the NCDOT Is assessing the damage.  

“There are some places that the water has receded and improved from that aspect. The problem is we’re finding locations, when the water does recede, we’re finding locations where the roadway is damaged,” Whitley said. 

As for where the money to repair these roads will come from Whitley explained that the DOT has emergency funding available. It can also request additional funding from FEMA if needed.  

But the question on a lot of people’s minds is when will roads reopen.  

“We’re out working right now, but again, there are some areas where we have to wait for the water to recede,” Whitley said. 

To stay up to date on the latest road closures, you can visit DriveNC.gov.