LUMBERTON, NC (WBTW) – People in Lumberton are starting to return home to assess the damage done by Hurricane Florence.
News13 went out to Alamac Road, one of the hardest hit streets in Lumberton, to talk with affected residents. Bethany Johnson says her family of five has been living in a motel since they evacuated on Saturday. She says when they returned to Alamac Road and saw the houses submerged in water, they were devastated.
“It broke my heart,” she said. “A lot of us was just recently getting home from Matthew. A lot of people have to go through it again and start over again.”
Johnson says her family recently moved back into their house after losing everything in Hurricane Matthew, including furniture, clothing and vehicles. They spent one year living in a motel, which they returned to on Saturday when they evacuated during Hurricane Florence. In a rush to beat the rising water, Johnson and her family grabbed as much of their stuff as they could before it was too late to evacuate.
“When Matthew came, we had to get out by a boat so we didn’t want to do that again so we panicked and just grabbed what we could and left,” Johnson told News13.
Johnson’s sons have been braving the floodwaters to get some of the belongings that were left behind. Her daughter, Valerie, says she feels sad to see the neighborhood covered in water. Johnson says her family can’t keep going through this and she hopes something is done to prevent future flooding. She hopes better and stronger dams will be built, more barricades will be installed, and the drains will be cleaned more thoroughly.
