How Raleigh will monitor flooding hot spots before and during major storms
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Raleigh used its Flood Early Warning System to predict flooding during storms.
- Wake County added real-time water monitoring at nine flood control reservoirs.
- Officials plan to expand system tools and public access to flood data by 2026.
Rose Lane is a known trouble spot.
The Southeast Raleigh street crosses over Walnut Creek. When the creek rises, it can cut off access to several dozen homes. Some residents had to be evacuated by water rescue crews during Hurricane Matthew almost 10 years ago.
So when Tropical Storm Debbie brought heavy rains to the Triangle last year, the city of Raleigh was watching.
The city used its Flood Early Warning System to target hotspots and install signs warning of potential high water during storms, including one near Rose Lane. The city intentionally lowered the water level at Lake Johnson to help collect storm runoff downstream ahead of Debbie’s arrival.
Using forecast models, stream and rain gauges, soil saturation and other data, the city determined Rose Lane would likely flood during the tropical storm last year, so it worked with Wake County to send mobile alerts through the county’s alert system.
“Rose Lane is one way in and one way out, and if that road floods then they can’t get out,” said Ran Northam, the city’s assistant director of public affairs. “So do we have the information to get to them before that road floods so they can leave if they want to before flood waters come.”
The system was used Wednesday and Thursday nights to monitor thunderstorms after the western Triangle faced significant flooding from remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal.
“During storm events we’re doing the same thing except it’s real-time, where we are monitoring 24/7 and providing real-time information and updates to our city staff, including emergency management, first responders and city management,” said Kelly Daniel, who manages the Flood Early Warning System.
Now, Wake County is adding to that system, installing water level monitoring systems at nine flood-control sites this summer at local lakes. One was installed at Lake Crabtree last year.
“We can see in real-time the level of the water in the lakes,” said Mark Hamlett, Wake County’s General Services Adminstration deputy director. “That allows us to know if we have problems. We will have early warning if water is going to over top the emergency spillway or if there’s other problems like a leak in the lake or we see water levels dropping.”
The new monitoring systems, all in the Crabtree Creek Watershed, will be located at:
- Sorrell’s Grove Reservoir
- Hatcher’s Grove Reservoir
- Bond Lake
- Page Lake
- Richland Lake
- Shelley Lake
- Coles Branch Reservoir
- Brier Creek Reservoir
- Lake Lynn
Those systems were built by the federal government in the 1970s and ‘80s, and Wake County maintains them now.
In the past year there’s been one instance of rain moving into emergency spillways at Lake Crabtree that the county was able to monitor, Hamlett said. They sent someone out to confirm the data they were seeing.
“The last thing you want is for a dam to over top because if the dam over tops then the top starts to erode, and that typically leads to a breach in the dam and a failure of the dam,” he explained.
Adding more data on the hundreds of dams in Raleigh and Wake County are the next steps in the early warning system, Daniel said.
Raleigh also wants to have a website to give community members more data, though Daniel said that’s likely over a year away.
This story was originally published July 11, 2025 at 10:53 AM.
