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Currituck County residents begin returning home after flooding

Currituck County residents begin returning home after flooding.

BELLS ISLAND, N.C. (WVEC) — For many people living in Currituck County, they thought they dodged the worst of Hurricane Florence, only to receive tremendous flooding a few days later.

“This is the worst flooding I have ever seen and I’ve been on this island about 30 years,” said Valerie Person.

Person lives on the point of Bells Island. Her house was surrounded by water for the past few days.

“We weren’t even able to get down here with an SUV, the water was too deep and the people who were coming down here, it was causing wake on the inside of the houses,” said Person.

Person evacuated on Monday and couldn't come home until Wednesday afternoon.

“Just not knowing is awful,” said Person. “My emotions have kind of gone like a roller coaster back and forth.”

Person finally returned to find about a foot of water on her first floor. Across the street, neighbor Ruth Turner has two pumps running 24/7 funneling water out from underneath her home.

“We woke up Monday morning and the front yard was completely under water, it was just very quickly,” said Turner.

Turner said the entire neighborhood was caught off guard. They thought the worst of Florence was behind them.

“The wind direction we got from Hurricane Florence, the water was actually low the entire time, so we thought, ‘That’s great,’ and then all of a sudden everything changed,” said Turner.

Turner said it was agonizing watching the water creep up closer and closer to her home, which is sandwiched between the Currituck Sound and Coinjock Bay.

“Well that’s a bad position to be in sometimes because when the water comes up it will come up on both sides when the winds are coming out of the south and when that happens our houses kind of get in the way,” said Turner.

However, these residents also acknowledge things could have been so much worse.

“It’s going to involve some cleaning, but we haven’t lost the house,” said Person.

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