Any weekend plans on the Neuse River will likely stay intact as a National Weather Service flood warning for Lenoir County won’t be significant.
The river is expected to crest at nearly 16 feet by Monday morning, but city officials say residents shouldn’t be worried about Thursday’s flood warning.
The Neuse was at 12.4 feet when the alert was released.
“I was concerned when (the National Weather Service) said it was 16.4 (feet) because it was close to us having a problem at the campground,” said Bobby Cox, a naturist with Nature Center at Neuseway Park. “It looks like it’s steadily dropping, (and) I’ve been keeping a good track.”
The NWS in Newport issued a caution Thursday morning with minor flooding in the forecast. The Neuse River flood stage is 14 feet, and it is expected to rise to 15.9 feet before descending.
Cox said a boat dock was installed to raise the flood warning stage for the campgrounds, which sit near Neuse banks. Nature Center employees warned the campers Thursday, telling them to pack up just in case the water rose to low land flooding.
“I’m not too worried,” said Pam Brown, a camper occupying the grounds with her family. “We can always hook up and go somewhere else or something.”
She and her grandson, Chase, 9, were packing away equipment in a pickup truck Thursday afternoon. They came to Kinston in April after spending the winter on North Dakota campgrounds.
“They told us to pack up just in case,” said Brown, noting they can move the bunker to higher lands at the Nature Center.
Casey Dail, a meteorologist with the Newport NWS, said the flood warning could only affect the campgrounds because it’s the nearest land area once the Neuse reaches the flood stage.
“We’re not expecting a lot of impacts,” she said. “We had quite a bit of rain over the last week or so. Essentially, a little bit more rain upstream is slowly working its way down towards … the Neuse right now.”
In the last week, there has been two to three inches of rainfall in Lenoir County. Other parts of Eastern North Carolina experienced up to four inches.
“Most of our typical river flooding tends to be later on in the fall with more tropical systems,” Dail said. “But we did have an early tropical system this year.”
Tropical Storm Andrea made landfall in the eastern part of the state last week, and the rain upstream near the Raleigh area is now making its way down.
“We’re not worried about it,” said Roger Dail, Lenoir County Emergency Services director. “If it gets to 18 or 19 (feet), there could be some issues down in the campgrounds at Neuseway Park. Other than that, it doesn’t even affect much anything until about 20.”
He said the mild warning can’t compare to past flooding, such as from Hurricane Fran in 1996 and, most notably, Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
The Neuse rose more than 33 feet in 1996 and nearly 38 feet in 1999.
Roger Dail said when Fran hit, Kinston started a mitigation project — relocating people from flood-prone areas — that didn’t get much interest. But when Floyd wiped out some residences in the city and Lenoir County, more people participated.
“The reason that we don’t have the impact from flooding like we used to is because of all the mitigation work that the city of Kinston and the county of Lenoir did after Floyd,” Roger Dail said. “At one time, we had the largest mitigation project in the country.”
Campers should be cleared to stay put in their locations through the weekend flood warning.
“The significant impact that we know of is that flooding near the campground,” Casey Dail said, “but for the most part, it’s going to be fairly minor around the river.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at Jessika.Morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
National Weather Service in Newport
Flood warning for the Neuse River in Kinston
From late Friday night until early Monday morning
Minor flooding is forecast
Neuse expected to rise 15.7 feet with its flood stage being 14 feet