Chadbourn family urging NCDOT to address persistent flooding issues in their area

CHADBOURN, NC (WWAY) — Tropical Storm Chantal swept through the Cape Fear over the Fourth of July weekend, bringing flooding and a tornado in the Kings Grant area of Wilmington.

One area of the Cape Fear that received significant rainfall was the town of Chadbourn.

One couple. Holly and Corey Floyd woke up early Sunday morning to an all-too familiar sight.

“I lifted the blind up and I just couldn’t believe all of the water I seen,” Holly said. “It just, no ground, no dirt, you couldn’t see anything. And I told Corey, I said “get up, we’ve gotta get up and move our stuff, we’re fixing to flood. This one was actually scarier than the rest I have ever seen.”

Their yard was flooded, all the way from Andrew Jackson Highway, and it even got under their home.

“It was about a foot up under my house, and it’s destroyed the ductwork underneath,” Corey said.

The water went up past Corey’s waist as he worked to prevent large branches from blocking a culvert near his property.

The Floyds’ yard has flooded previously in 2016, 2023, and 2024, an issue Corey said has repeatedly hit their wallets.

“Every time it happens, its over a thousand dollars, sometimes 2,000. This time, we’ve had to buy window units just to have air conditioning until all of this dries out so we can replace the ductwork and that’s $1500 in air conditioning.”

Corey said he’s repeatedly contacted the North Carolina Department of Transportation to clear the culvert and drainage ditch near his home, but he claims they’re not doing enough to keep this from happening.

“The state don’t do a lot of roadwork no more. They don’t clean the ditches and I think they need to get back to it. Ditches need to be dug out, maybe the swamps need to be gone through.”

“I believe we need to get the culvert a little bit bigger because seeing all the water in our yard, it is very scary to us,” Holly said.

WWAY reached out to the NCDOT.

A spokesperson said they are responsible for maintaining drainage ditches along roads like the one the Floyds live on.

The DOT also said their crews were out in Columbus County on Sunday, responding to calls about road hazards like flooding and fallen trees.