Meeting Addresses Local Climate Trouble Spots

This article first appeared in The Pilot on April, 29, 2022.

There are several key challenges Moore County and its neighbors face when it comes to extreme weather events and climate disasters, according to leaders of a state-led climate mitigation project and members of these communities.

A workshop on Wednesday was designed to give residents a say in the development of a climate vulnerability assessment. That assessment will be used as a basis for funding new infrastructure and community recovery projects as part of the state-led Regional Resilience Portfolio Project.

That project was launched this past November to help North Carolina communities plan for climate change. It aims to build a portfolio of fundable projects in nine regions across Eastern North Carolina that defend against future threats like hurricanes and heat waves.

The project is an offshoot of the Regions Innovating for Strong Economies and Environment Program. RISE is a partnership between the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency and N.C. Rural Center, in collaboration with the N.C. Councils of Governments, including the Triangle J Council of Governments.

The Office of Recovery and Resiliency was established in 2018 after Hurricane Florence to manage the state’s disaster recovery efforts. The hurricane, just two years after Hurricane Matthew, cost North Carolina $22 billion in economic damage. The state is currently managing 11 disaster recovery funds, said Mary Glasscock, infrastructure program manager at NCORR.

Glasscock said that most climate hazards have a regional impact, so RISE aims to work on projects that can reach across county lines and foster collaboration across different communities.

“So we do things in a larger group and not clusters,” Glasscock said.

While NCORR eventually hopes to make RISE a statewide program, “we're starting here in our hardest hit counties, which of course Triangle J is one.”

The Triangle J counties included in the RISE project include Chatham, Lee, Johnston and Moore counties.

Hope Morgan, a project facilitator from the engineering company AECOM, explained that coordination and standardization are key to building climate resilience.

“What is next door to me? What are the impacts downstream? That line is invisible. This is not a real boundary — it's something somebody made up,” Morgan said. “We have got to figure out where we live physically, and how we're going to make these pieces work together.”

At the meeting, project coordinators identified several climate hazards in the region and asked for input from members of those communities who attended. The main hazards in the region include hurricanes and storms, flooding, heavy precipitation, extreme temperatures (high heat index), droughts and wildfires. Draining issues were also a common theme.

While the region has several shared challenges, Moore County has its own set of problems when it comes to managing extreme weather.

According to an interactive map on the RISE website, the county has several problems related to flooding and stormwater runoff. For example, in Whispering Pines, there are several interconnected lakes that are flood-prone, and there’s no system in place to communicate floodgate openings and downstream impact.

Downtown Southern Pines is subject to frequent flooding from stormwater runoff as well. Aberdeen itself is built in a floodplain, so it comes with high risk of flooding. Northern parts of the county are susceptible to flooding as well. In Glendon, “frequent rescue efforts” are needed as a result of storms, according to the map.

Dam breakage is another key issue in the county. John Parker, the regional facilitator for Triangle J, said there are 62 high hazard dams in Moore County, many of which are privately owned and operated. Since there’s no communication between these various dam owners when releases happen, other properties often get flooded. An assessment of these dams and coordination between their owners could go a long way in preventing future flooding across the county, Parker said.

Community members have until May 20 to give feedback. To comment on local weather hazards and learn more about the project, county residents can visit an interactive, virtual “exploration room” on the RISE website. Organizers suggest filling out a climate hazard survey, located in the virtual room at https://www.risecentralnc.com/