CAROLINA BEACH — The town is advising anyone who needs to travel on Canal Drive over the next several days to consider different routes.
From Saturday Dec. 30 through Thursday Jan. 4, the town expects flooding on Canal Drive and warns residents to make alternative arrangements if passing through the marina front drive is part of the daily routine.
Canal Drive in Carolina Beach is subject to frequent flooding. Between the marina and the oceanfront, Canal Drive will often flood while high tides and heavy rain coincide.
The flooding on Canal Drive is usually a combination of salt and rainwater, as the drains will overflow water from the marina side in especially high tides.
Salt water has the potential to corrode vehicles, especially if motorists are unaware of the flooding and choose to pass through regardless.
The town has coordinated an on-call environmental staff to monitor the tides and arrange road closures.
“We are going to have our on-call environmental guys monitoring it closesly,” said Shelia Nicholson, administrative assistant for the town. “They’re going to do all they can to prevent people that don’t live there from traveling up those roads.”
Nicholson suggests that residents of the area may need to make arrangements to park on higher ground during the flooding to avoid damage to their cars.
“Those people that like to drive their cars through, not realizing that you know, ‘Hey, this is salt water,'” Nicholson said.
This flooding has caused extensive damage to homes in the area, with one currently undergoing elevation renovations after its application was awarded by FEMA.
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Johanna Ferebee can be reached at johanna@localvoicemedia.com or @j__ferebee on Twitter
