Watch out for cows crossing the road and standing water in Pender County

ATKINSON, NC (WWAY) — The western part of Pender County is quite rural. The flooding situation is unfolding and changing by the hour in areas near Atkinson and Currie, especially locations near the Black River. Essentially you have to be more careful than usual driving through Pender County. You just never know what you’re gonna see around a curve according to Eugene Davenport. “All those little rivers empty in and flood and leave us in for a bad way,” Davenport told WWAY’s John Rendleman. “I mean they all have to come here and empty in and of course it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

On a road just outside Atkinson we found a cow crossing the road in order to get to the other side. Six years ago it took Kelly Bloodworth two weeks to capture all of his cows after a tornado ripped through his farm. He’s hoping it won’t take as long this week. “The cows are out in the road because the power is off and the fence is not hot and they know it. I’ve heard they can smell it, not sure about that, but they know when the electric fence is off.”

We stopped by an active fish camp at Point Caswell on the Black River. In fact Point Caswell used to be the county seat of Pender County, but that was years ago. Walking through the water to the fish camp was not an option on Monday. It would have been over any adult’s head.

We also made a quick stop in Bladen County. Just across the Bladen County / Pender County line we saw some drivers playing cat and mouse with their cars. Some drivers act like the water is nothing to worry about while some proceed with caution on a road that’s a bit more scenic than usual. We caught up with Doug Sholl who made it through Beattys Bridge Road on his ride home to Onslow County. “As long as you don’t go too fast you should be fine,” Sholl said. “There are a lot of flooded roads just over there that only SUV’s can get through.”

Sholl made it through. Not sure if that’ll be the case later in the week with everyone else.