The unnamed storm over the weekend and Monday dropped something over 7 inches of rain on Wake Forest though some rain gauges may have recorded even more.
The Town of Wake Forest issued bulletins throughout the weekend, listing roads and streets where flooding could be expected and closing all the town’s greenways and trails because of significant flooding. The flooding affected bridges and boardwalks as well as the trails. All the greenways were reopened Tuesday except the Smith Creek Greenway at Burlington Mills Road.
Another danger – a possibly failing dam in the Fairlake subdivision on Purnell Road – was also averted Tuesday after the earlier swift water subsided. Called Lewis Dam, it holds back about 10 acres of water from an unnamed stream, a tributary of Horse Creek, though it might be Mud Branch. On Tuesday morning dam safety inspectors from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, along with officials from Wake Forest and Wake County, discovered that high water velocity was causing significant bank erosion just downstream of the earthen dam. Officials say that if the bank erosion had continued, the integrity of the earthen dam may have been compromised resulting in a potential breach. The dam was built in the 1930s and the pond and dam are owned by the Fairlake Community Homeowners’ Association.
Work crews used approximately 200 sandbags to reinforce the dam and two six-inch pumps to reduce the flow of water. The pumps will continue to operate for the next several days.
Wake County Emergency Management issued a warning Tuesday evening to approximately 45 area residents that there was a potential for a dam breach. Inspectors will continue to monitor the dam over the next several days.
For the Triangle area, the storm has wiped out the rainfall deficit that had grown to 4 inches of rain last week.
