Search our map to see if your neighborhood is at risk of Florence flooding this weekend

View The Original Article Here

Heavy rain is expected to bring weekend flooding to Charlotte, and it’s the city’s oldest neighborhoods that could face the highest risks.

More than 2,400 properties sit in areas that the city’s storm water experts consider at the “highest risk” of flooding. Many of these properties are in floodplains that border waterways and that make a massive ring around uptown.

Tim Trautman, the city’s storm water engineering and mitigation program manager, said there are floodplains throughout the county. But the densest development tends to be in neighborhoods built decades ago, before current building codes took effect.

“The concern for flooding is all over the county,” he said Friday, “but there certainly is more in the flood plains in those (older) areas that is vulnerable.”

Briar Creek, for example, runs from east Charlotte — north of U.S. 74 — south through Chantilly, Eastover and Myers Park. In that stretch alone, more than 500 properties are in jeopardy of flooding, according to an Observer analysis of storm water services data.

Further south, in Collingwood, Madison Park and Selwyn Park, another 450 properties are at the highest risk of flooding. And to the west, along Irwin Creek, another 130 fall into that category.

In all, more than 5,600 properties in Mecklenburg County are at some risk of flooding, data show. Risk ranges from “highest” to “least.”

Most of the neighborhoods with more properties clustered in flood plains are in and around central and south Charlotte.