Portions of Pender County remain inaccessible by car with flooded roads

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY)  – Many parts of Pender County remain under water now more than 11 days since Florence came through. Roads are impassible and neighbors having to get creative in order to survive.

Highway 421 at the county line is gone. Highway 210 is impassible both before Rocky Point and past Moore’s Creek Battlefield. Highway 11 south of Atkinson is blocked off.

Main roads are coming back but a majority in the middle and western parts of the county are still struggling.

“We’re almost to the pavement,” said Scott King as he carries five grocery bags down an embankment.

Our walk with King started at the Old River Road bridge over I-40. For 8 days that has been the lone way neighbors in Ashton Lake could get out of their homes to get supplies.

“It’s flooded at the head of the road, quite a few times, but it’s always passable,” said King. We know how high the water gets and if we can get through or not, but never like this.”

The only reason the dozens of homeowners had access to this easement was after Verizon came in and cut down the fencing according to neighbors.

As we were there along Ashton Lake Road, David Wood tried his luck and for the first time in 11 days he could get his truck over the water.

“Well I just got home from work and I thought for tomorrow I need to at least come through here and see what I’ve got,” said Wood. “The other guy that I work for has been coming up here and picking me up on the south side of the road.”

Several neighbors have had to return to work this week relying on coworkers picking them up. If you ask anyone who lives along the road, they are grateful. In fact, no homes were lost during the storm according to King.

“We’ve come together, we know names we did not know before. Met people, they’ve helped, I’ve helped, we’ve come together.”