LUMBERTON — Robeson County residents skittish with Hurricane Matthew memories still fresh in their minds could exhale this morning as they awakened to skies that were trying to clear, no rain and retreating flood waters.

But on Monday, during the height of sometimes torrential rain, social media and especially Facebook were capturing their fears that there might be a mini-Matthew. The hurricane, which hit Robeson County on Oct. 8 and caused recording flooding that lasted for days, caused damage locally that residents are still trying to recover from.

Robeson County was the hardest hit county by Matthew in North Carolina, which was the state that suffered the most under the hurricane. The storm was blamed for three deaths locally and more than 20 across the state.

According to the National Weather Service, as of 8 this morning about 4 inches of rain had fallen in Robeson County since midnight Sunday, and there could be some scattered rain throughout the day. Unlike during Matthew, which closely followed a tropical storm, the county in recent weeks has been dry, and better to handle the rain.

All of the rain should be gone by 5 p.m., and the sun is in the forecast for the rest of the week, with highs Wednesday at about 80 degrees and then climbing from there in the following days.

“There might be some light showers today,” said Stephen Keebler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, but he said that no more than a half-inch of rain is expected.

Keebler said this morning that the Lumber River is at 12.77 feet, just below its minor flood stage, and was expected to crest about 8 tonight at about 14.3 feet. That compares with the days following Matthew when the river approached 24 feet, a level never seen before.

On Monday, however, there were visual reminders of Matthew, as roadside ditches were overflowing, streets were flooding and hazardous and in some neighborhoods water was threatening to enter homes. Local residents went to Facebook to post photos of their neighborhoods, and to express their hopes that the worst wasn’t on its way.

Vehicles traveling Interstate 95 could be seen pulling off the major highway to wait for the rain to slacken.

Unlike on Oct. 8, however, when the rain continued throughout the day, dumping 12 to 18 inches throughout the county, the downfall stopped at about 6 p.m.

City Manager Wayne Horne and Rob Armstrong, the director of Public Works, were out in the rain, monitoring the situation. Among the buildings Horne and Armstrong checked was The Robesonian’s at 2175 Roberts Ave., whose contents were destroyed during Matthew. The building is undergoing extensive renovations, with a reopening planned for sometime in June.

The newspaper’s parking lot was looking eerily similar to the day of Matthew, with water rising at the loading dock, but it receded when the rain stopped.

The Robesonian staff, some of which is operating out of a temporary office downtown, did have to evacuate it when water crept into the building, sending reporters home with their laptops.

Horne on Monday said city officials expected the Lumber River to crest at about 16.2 feet in a couple of days, but the National Weather Service this morning had an updated and more modest figure.

Robeson County remained under a flood watch this morning, and people living alongside the Lumber River were advised to keep an eye on it.

The water level rose quickly in this ditch beside Elizabethtown Road on Monday, but the rain stopped early evening and no significant flooding problems were reported.
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_Ditches2017424193022699-1.jpgThe water level rose quickly in this ditch beside Elizabethtown Road on Monday, but the rain stopped early evening and no significant flooding problems were reported.

Donnie Douglas

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Editor Donnie Douglas can be reached at 910-416-5649.