WILMINGTON — In the days after Hurricane Florence, driving around Wilmington was almost like a ghost town with few vehicles on roads and trees tossed about. But as the city recovers you might have noticed a bit more traffic than usual — if so, you aren’t alone.
While summer is typically the time for heavier traffic in the Port City, especially with tourists flocking to the coast, traffic has apparently been steadily increasing post-Florence. According to Wilmington Traffic Engineer Don Bennett, there is data to back up these observations.
Bennett and engineering staff analyzed traffic patterns at “gateways” into the city during the lunch hour to track traffic in the city.
“I used the lunchtime period 12:15 – 1:15 p.m. to avoid significant school-related traffic volume influences. Using longer than a one hour window will likely lead to inaccuracies with our data logging issues,” Bennett said.
“[It] looks like every gateway is showing signs of elevated traffic volumes, except the Airport and Wrightsville Beach. Seems realistic since travel by air here is probably down due to weather event and ocean/intracoastal/river/creek water quality has been less than optimal lately … also vacation travel is dropping,” he concluded.
As shown in the maps provided by Bennett, routes like that of Military Cutoff Road and Gordon Road have seen significant increases in traffic, with Gordon Road peaking at a 28-percent increase.
Why the increase?
Bennett has several theories as to why the traffic has increased so dramatically after Florence including:
- Tree and Landscape contractors – still clearing private property
- Debris collection – There are over 50 contractor trucks circulating throughout town from sunup to sundown, then shuttling debris to one of three debris sites.
- Insurance adjusters – traversing the town doing assessments, processing claims and coordinating repairs.
- Building contractors/roofers running about doing estimates, repairs, and restorations and getting material deliveries.
- Relief workers/volunteers – providing assistance to those impacted by the storm.
- Many of the above are from out of town and might be driving a little more conservatively since they are not familiar with how to get from point A to point B
- Temporary residents – persons who have found accommodations in town from Pender and Brunswick areas flooded. Then driving from the hotel, B&B or other rental back and forth to deal with aftermath at their house.
- Residents that usually shop out of town – many retail establishments might have been flooded or damaged. Local residents or those from surrounding areas heading into town for groceries, supplies, replacement clothes, furniture or other items as needed to return to some sort of normalcy of life.
- Displaced rental tenants – moving out and trying to find storage for their belongings and accommodations for themselves.
So, when will things get back — or at least closer — to normal?
“Suffice it to say, we have a lot of guests here in Wilmington as we are the hub of commerce for quite a large area. It appears they are going to be our guests from some time. Although tree and debris contractors will likely be gone ‘soon,’ we will likely have a slightly different traffic pattern for some time until the surrounding areas begin recovery in earnest,” Bennett said.
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