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Treading
high water
Deluge drenches Triad ahead of Ernesto’s rain
BY KELLY KRAMP
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – Wednesday’s deluge left streets and homes all over
the city flooded, and it was only the first of a few soggy days.
More heavy downpours are expected today from the remnants of Ernesto.
‘We’ve had flooding really all over the city. A lot of places that
don’t normally flood were flooded because there was so much rainfall,” said
Capt. Cherie Maness, of the High Point Police Department.
The storms left a few people, such as Gwen Ivery
of High Point,
stuck in their vehicles when they tried to drive through the water.
Ivery was driving on W. Ward Avenue when her car got stuck
in standing water under the railroad trestle near Prospect Street.
“I didn’t know the water was that deep. I
drove in it and the car just stopped,” Ivery said.
When she and her daughter got out of the vehicle, the water was up to
her knees, but they weren’t hurt, she said.
Several other people had to be pulled out of a van on Grimes Avenue
after trying to drive through rising water. Emergency crews had that road
closed much of the night Wednesday.
Maness said there were no reports of injuries because of the storm.
One family, though, was forced out of their home by a fire likely
started by a lightning strike, said Capt. Denita
Lynch, spokeswoman for the High Point Fire Department.
The fire at a house at 808
Westchester Drive was reported just after the
afternoon storms struck. Little information about the fire was available,
but Lynch said the family was working with the High Point Thomasville
chapter of the American Red Cross for ass istance.
A firefighter was taken to High
Point Regional Hospital and treated for heat exhaustion.
Even the High Point Fire Department couldn’t escape the flooding. Lynch said
headquarters on Elm Street
flooded, as did apartments next door. Both sites have had repeated flood problems .
kkramp@hpe.com |
888-3536
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