Hunting Island is closed after heavy rain flooded roads. There’s a plan to fix that
Hunting Island State Park has closed temporarily after heavy rain Tuesday, a move its caretakers hope happens less often in the future.
The barrier island in northern Beaufort County had received more than 7 inches of rain from midnight through Tuesday morning that flooded roads, the park announced. Park officials hope to reopen Wednesday.
“Our roads are submerged,” a park staff member posted on Twitter just after noon. “Hunting island is closing for the day. Sorry for any inconvenience. Hopefully we can dry out today and reopen in the morning.”
Showers and thunderstorms were expected into Tuesday night along the southeastern coast of the state as a disturbance from the Gulf of Mexico moves across the Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service.
Park manager J.W. Weatherford said there was more water on the roads Tuesday than when he arrived shortly after Tropical Storm Irma in 2017.
The park had just finished work to fill potholes with $10,000 remaining from the previous fiscal year’s budget. Keeping vehicles off the road during the flooding should help keep the filling material intact, Weatherford said.
Beaufort County contributed several steel plates to cover other eroded pavement.
State park officials plan a $3-million project to repave the park’s roads and raise the pavement as much as almost 2 feet in areas that flood frequently. The bulk of that money will be covered by a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that came after Irma damaged the park.
Weatherford said state engineers recently granted the project tentative approval. Park staff hopes the work is finished by the end of the year.
Hunting Island has three pumps that staff can operate to clear water from roads and ditches. But while it’s still raining, the water rises faster than it can be cleared.
“There’s not a lot of place for the water to go right now,” Weatherford said. “... We’re going to have to have a couple of hours of no rain until we can make a dent in the water.”’
Hunting Island has been battered during the past five years by abnormally high tides, hurricanes and tropical storms. State and local officials recently celebrated the completion of a $17-million project to restore the beach and dunes.
