Flooding rains in Lincoln County occurred at ‘hurricane rates’, catching local authorities off guard

LINCOLNTON, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Intense storms battered Lincolnton Wednesday night, but no emergency alerts were sent to the phones of people in the area. 

Mark Howell, Lincoln County’s Emergency Management coordinator, says four

to five feet of water quickly pooled in some parts of town. 

He monitored it all from the county’s Emergency Operations Center. The rain was powerful enough that Howell prepared swift-water rescue boats to respond to any incidents. 

“[There was] 2.5 inches of rain in that first 30 minutes,” he said. “At that rate, you were getting five inches of rain an hour. That’s hurricane rates.” 

Howell posted information and warnings on county social media accounts, but Queen City News asked why people in the area didn’t get the message to their phones. 

“Honestly, we didn’t know that much rain was coming until it had already come, and it lasted such a short period of time that by the time we started getting reports in, honestly, it had already stopped raining,” Howell said. 

At 8:17 p.m., the National Weather Service issued its low-level Flash Flood Advisory, which doesn’t get pushed out as an alert to phones. Then at 8:51, a more serious Flash Flood Warning came out.

“We’re not really expecting a lot of significant property damage at that point, said Trisha Palmer, a warning coordination meteorologist in the NWS Greenville-Spartanburg office. “Once we move up to that ‘Considerable’ [warning], that’s where we’re expecting it to impact more properties, homes, businesses.” 

Howell and his team do have the ability to use the wireless emergency alert system to reach tens of thousands of people. 

“We can pick an area of the county or we can say, ‘Do it countywide,’” he said. “Needs to be an incident that’s going to threaten lives immediately. That’s our criteria. 

People in Lincoln County can choose to sign up for safety alerts that don’t necessarily rise to the highest emergency level at www.smart911.com. Officials also suggest picking up a NOAA weather radio, which can share alerts even without internet or cell service. 

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