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RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – The City of Raleigh has over 100 camera installed across the city to monitor the events of flooding, and more are on their way.
Wednesday afternoon city officials monitored the approaching threat of thunderstorms and potential flooding come to the east coast and, after past events of hurricanes, the city of Raleigh now has its “Flood Monitoring Camera System” to keep citizens and first responders informed.
“We saw the ability to have cameras in place in flood-prone areas so we could live monitor the flooding that could be potentially going on,” Kelly Daniel, who is the project manager for the operation, said.
Through a partnership with the cities transportation system, they can now monitor around 150 camera in prone areas where flooding occurs. The program installed its first camera in 2019, but the monitoring system is still fairly new and something they could not do before.
“The only thing we had before was either eyewitnesses or staff being out looking at things like that,” Daniel said.
Businesses near Atlanta and Hodges said the flooding has impacted their businesses and can be a bit frustrating.
“For the most part, the rain seems to reseed fairly quickly. But when we do get a really hard rain, it will probably get blocked up for about three to four hours at a time, Hans Rosemond who is Manager at Southeastern Camera said.
Even the owner of Capital Strength & Conditioning commented.
“Usually, we will see anywhere from about 3 – to 12 inches of water in the road if it a really bad flash flood warning,” Matt McLaughlin said.
Although they can’t predict the weather, they said their customers sometimes pay for the inconvenience.
“Sometimes I would tell them, if they are parked at the lower end where the flood zone is, to move their car higher so that there is no water risk for their car,” McLaughlin said.
“It’s just an issue of well ‘ I wanted to come in but I couldn’t.’ Maybe they would show up the next day and say ‘Hey I tried to come in or hey I had a rental due but I couldn’t get into the shop to get it back to you on time,” Rosemond shared.
One lady who shops near the Crabtree Mall area shared what she heard.
“I just know it floods a lot to the point where people can’t even get in the area, which is kind of crazy considering it is a major shopping area,” Lisa Aube said.
Kelly said the program is in response to recent hurricanes coming to the area.
“A lot of this came about because of Matthew and Florence. And what the flooding we had during Matthew and the potential flooding that was going to happen or occurred during Florence,” Kelly shared.
Kelly shared with the CBS17 crew that more camera could be on the way.
“Oh yes…we are going to continue our partnership in areas where it is prone to flooding,” he said.
For a list of the camera system near you click here.
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