MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Thursday marked six months since residents living along the Catawba River were hit by Hurricane Helene. The area had some of the worst flooding in the Charlotte metro.
Now, some neighbors that saw the flood waters invade the lower part of their homes are working to rebuild what was lost, but then there are some homes that will be sold to the county.
Jeff McManus had been living here about 10 years. He’s one of many neighbors on Riverside Drive in the Mountain Island area that lost pretty much everything.
“It was a beautiful place, and I hate to move, but this is the second time we’ve flooded in five years, and you just don’t know when the next flood might come,” McManus said.
While McManus lost his home, other homeowners were able to escape the brunt of the flooding. Just down the street, Tom Davis’ home was damaged but not destroyed.
“The process was not efficient, but we all struggled through it, and everybody got war stories about it," Davis said.
Davis said from the notifications local officials sent urging neighbors to leave up until now, it has not been easy.
“Everybody’s different but the common theme is it happened, and the process was broken,” he said.
Mecklenburg County approves more buyout grants for Riverside Drive community after Helene floodingThings may be gone, but McManus still has hope.
“The county is actually buying the property – made an offer,” McManus said. “This was home, this was a great place to live.”
The night before things got bad here neighbors said Duke Energy released the Mountain Island dam. We have never been able to get a clear answer on a timeline of how that happened. It’s because of this uncertainty that some of these neighbors do not want to rebuild.
The county buyout program allows property owners accept money from the county for their homes. Many in the community have already been acquired following the flooding in 2019. The properties must be at risk of more flooding or pose a risk to somebody’s life.
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