By Erin Smith
Bladen County is entering the process of recovering and rebuilding following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Florence. Flood waters are beginning to slowly recede across the county on Monday.
Many roads in the Rowan and Kelly areas remain impassable due to flooding. Bladen County Emergency Management Director, Bradley Kinlaw, said the decision was made on Monday morning to re-open NC 53 into Kelly to local traffic only. He said the road is currently a dead end, as the road is not passable to get to Burgaw or Rowan. Kinlaw said many of the side roads in Kelly also remain flooded on Monday.
“The reason we decided to re-open NC 53 to local traffic only is to allow those residents who are able to go in and assess their homes,” said Kinlaw.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives are also preparing to deploy in Bladen County, according to Kinlaw. He said he has met twice with FEMA officials, and they have also visited the shelters meeting with those individuals housed there.
If you have not yet filed a FEMA claim, you can do so by calling 1-800-621-FEMA to begin the claims process. You can also visit DisasterAssistance.gov for more information.
Kinlaw said the State of Emergency remains in place for Bladen County due to the flooding in Kelly and Rowan. He anticipates it will remain in place through Friday.
Kinlaw said the NC Department of Transportation has been working diligently to make repairs to roadways to make them passable.
The Emergency Operations Center for Bladen County was able to be closed on Sunday afternoon at 5 PM. Kinlaw said many of the out-of-state and out-of-county resources who have been deployed to Bladen County, have left except one nursing team from Alabama.
Brandon Meadows, with Vertical Church in Elizabethtown, said the efforts to assist those in need in Bladen County with meals and supplies has been a joint effort of all the churches both in the county and across the country.
Meadows said, while the feeding operations were completed for Bladen County on Sunday, more than 12,000 hot meals have been prepared and sent to people in Burgaw, Whiteville, Clarkton, Riegelwood, Delco, White Oak, Bladenboro, Elizabethtown, and Ammon.
Since Wednesday of last week, Megan De Thay and Rev. Meadows both said there have been as many as 100 volunteers daily assisting with the meal preparations at Vertical Church.
“The meals were prepared here (at Vertical Church) and sent out to those who need them,” said Rev. Meadows.
The meal preparations were assisted by Mercy Chefs, an organization from Virginia, which resounds to natural disasters. Rev. Meadows said Chefs from all over the United States deploy with Mercy Chefs to disaster areas to prepare meals for anyone who needs them.
Rev. Meadows said there have been 28 truckloads of products delivered to Bladen County since Hurricane Florence struck. Some of those products have included baby diapers, formula, hygiene products, non-perishable items, batteries, and paper products.
Some items were received from Convoy of Hope, World Vision, Church of the Highlands in Alabama, Dream Center in Memphis, Tennessee, Life Point Church in Wilmington, and Life Springs Church in Sanford.
De Thay, with Vertical Church, said things are now transitioning to the recovery phase and disaster cleaning supplies are beginning to come in. She said an announcement will soon be made regarding the location for those supplies to be distributed.
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