Due to damage from Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence, the Little Pee Dee State Park is undergoing renovations to fix a dam breach.
Repairs on the dam first started after Hurricane Matthew destroyed the lake. Workers were almost finished rebuilding the spillway when Hurricane Florence hit and breached it again.
As a result, the 835-acre park has been without water since.Contractors are now working to rebuild the spillway for a third time.
“It’s sad, but it’s exciting with all these cement trucks because it’s been since whenever Matthew was. A couple years. It was all the water into the woods and so by them fixing it up, it’s going to be great,” said visitor Vanessa Brown.
Park visitors once had the ability to kayak, fish, hike and spend time with their loved ones around the lake. But, many have stopped coming since the damages.
“It’s nothing to draw us here. I mean it was so devastating. It was sad to even come,” said visitor Sharon Horner.
On Monday, contractors laid concrete on the spillway and will add touch-ups throughout the next couple of weeks. Park Manager Michael Collier said he expects water activities to resume by the summer. Vegetation is another thing that needs to be worked on, he added.
“We are working on a plan currently to figure out how we’re going to get rid of it. But, then after that we will try to address fish, canoeing and kayaking to make Lake Norton back to what it was,” Collier said.
