Storm drops 2-4 inches on Wayne County
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on August 10, 2005 1:59 PM
Storm clouds dumped heavy rain on parts of Wayne County Tuesday afternoon, with some areas getting as much as four inches.
The rain was heaviest in the central and northern sections of the county, with much of it falling in a short amount of time.
Gerald Howell on Tommy's Road said his rain gauge showed 3.8 inches.
"We were putting in tobacco when it started," he said. "It was a mess."
Chad Matthews, the superintendent at Lane Tree Golf Course, said 3.1 inches of rain fell there in an hour.
The rain started about midday and continued until late in the afternoon in some areas. Patetown residents reported four inches of rain.
About two inches of rain fell along Berkeley Boulevard and at Goldsboro Municipal Golf Course. A number of streets in the city were flooded.
Nahunta residents reported about 1.5 inches of rain in just an hour. The gauge at the Fremont Public Works facility showed .86 of an inch. Pikeville officials said they received a little over two inches.
Jerry West lives between Fremont and Eureka. He said his neighborhood received about an inch of rain.
"We didn't get the rain some people got," he said.
Wayne County emergency officials said they received no reports of problems caused by the sudden downpour but in Mount Olive town employees and property owners were quick to clean debris from street drains to avoid possible flooding. Several streets in Mount Olive flooded last week when as much as six inches fell in a short time.
Mayor Ruff Huggins said it's standard procedure in Mount Olive for people to grab a rake and check their storm drains whenever it rains.
"People understand that's a problem we have," said Huggins. "If it looks like it's going to rain, we clean the pine straw out of the storm drains just in case."
Huggins said 1.65 inches of rain fell at his home on Crest Drive. Water covered several streets but drained quickly, he said.
Steve Oates at the Mount Olive sewer plant said his rain gauge registered 1.73 inches, but it didn't prove a problem yet.
"If we don't get much more, I think we'll be OK," he said. "It's when we get four inches that we're in trouble."
Weather forecasters were calling for a 40 percent chance of rain tonight, with scattered thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday.