Remnants of Tropical Storm Eta flood homes and create dangerous conditions

BLADEN COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) - Although Tropical Storm Eta did not make landfall in North Carolina, the deadly storm rushed up the east coast and caused destruction in many areas.

From the western part of the state where several people are dead, others are missing and hundreds are having to be rescued from floodwaters, to Brunswick County where heavy rain caused an overturned vehicular accident near Leland and one man was killed on River Road after a head-on collision.

While not dealing with anything that severe, neighbors in Bladen County dealt with another round of flooding. Joseph Gooden’s home in Dublin always struggles to weather storms.

“Every time it rains, we start flooding...just a regular rainstorm," said Gooden. "Last night was a little bit different. We got a lot of rain, so a lot of flooding.”

Gooden says he’s used to a lot of water in his yard but he had to take extreme measures so the water wouldn’t damage his home more than it already had.

“What I do is I put a pump in the ditch and I got a water hose running from the ditch to the road and all it does is try to keep the water from rising any further so I can get it from the ditch to the road to save our house,” said Gooden.

You can tell he’s had to do this before. A backed-up storm drain no longer stops his home from flooding. Now, it’s the cause of it.

He’s reached out to both the town and the state department of transportation for help with clearing out the drain, but no luck so far.

Now, each time the water seeps into his home, it’s putting a drain on his wallet and his mental health.

“Every time it rains, you get stressed out," said Gooden.

Parts of Bladen County were under a flash flood warning Thursday, some areas seeing as much as eight inches of rain. Now, North Carolina is under a state of emergency because of the severe flooding and the recovery to follow.

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