The Little Pee Dee River has once again flooded this Marion County community
Water from the Little Pee Dee River has overwhelmed homes in Brittons Neck, just across the Marion County line.
The small community off U.S. 378 was surprised by the severity of flooding during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Now residents worry the Great Pee Dee River, to their southwest, will add to the already rising water in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.
Most houses were cut off completely Saturday, with water on the front steps and creeping closer to the porch.
Kent Richardson stood on dry land just down the road from his house on Bay Road, where he has lived for 22 years. On Saturday, he watched his brother-in-law circle his house in a jon boat.
Richardson said his house was touched by flooding during Matthew, but it didn’t go under. Even so, he had to rebuild and renovate after the storm.
He said there were still paint samples on the kitchen table.
“I’m still exhausted from rebuilding last time,” Richardson said. “I hate to think about the work after.”
Across the street, Jimmy and David Poston took a break from loading their sister’s furniture into a U-Haul truck to catch fish in the front yard. David Poston said he drove up from Columbia to help his family evacuate.
Brian Terry and Candi Cisson were waiting for the floodwaters to recede in their home further down Bay Road with their 11 dogs, along with Cisson’s sister and her two dogs.
The dogs usually have the run of the whole yard, Cisson said. They tied their pontoon boat at the back of the house to evacuate the animals if water keeps rising.
Terry said the water was still several inches lower than it was when Matthew hit the area.
The family didn’t expect the flooding this time to be as bad as Matthew. That’s why Cisson and Terry didn’t evacuate.
“(Everyone) said no way it’d happen again,” she said.
Cisson’s father, Wyman Watson, is the Brittons Neck Gresham volunteer fire chief. He lives just across Bay Road, and Cisson said he’d already been to their house on a jon boat.
He, his wife and his two dogs, Daisy and Prissy, were also waiting out the flood at their home. Watson said his wife depends on an oxygen tank, so he couldn’t leave. But if the water rises much higher, they’ll find a way to get out.
“We’ve seen storms come and go,” he said. “And we’ve seen hurricanes come and go — and never nothing like this.”
He said his department has 15 to 18 people out on rescue operations with the National Guard. Watson said he’s lived on that street for 67 years — all his life — and has only seen a flood that bad once before, during Matthew.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see this again,” he said.
He even saw a 3-foot alligator swim through his backyard Friday night, he said.
Marvin and Avery Singleton live on a dry hill nearby but brought a jon boat to check on their church, Pine Grove Baptist, off U.S. 378. Marvin offered to take Michele Larrimore to her house, just past the church, while he had his boat.
“We lost our house after Matthew,” Larrimore said.
She said they raised the modular home a few feet and “we’re praying it’s enough.”
Avery said Marvin helped build the church’s current building in 2007. In 2016, when Matthew hit, church members had to take the pews out of the quickly flooding neighborhood. Marvin said only the piano was moved out this time. The pews were raised on to 4-foot-high landings.
“I never thought I’d see the water this high again in my lifetime,” Marvin said.
He said the church has been in the area for almost 140 years. “The water’s only been this high twice — two years apart.”
He said the flooding is “heartbreaking,” especially for nearby homeowners.
Richardson said his kids want to move home someday. But when they do, he’ll tell them to build their houses on stilts.
“Houses down here, folks lost their entire homes,” Richardson said. “I’ve been more than blessed not to lose everything.”
This story was originally published September 22, 2018 at 5:41 PM.