LAURINBURG — The good news is that the thermometer is showing warmer temperatures this weekend. The bad news? Scotland County and surrounding areas are being swamped once again with rain.
With temps predicted to reach into the 60s Saturday through Monday, Mother Nature has been dealing the region with a watery wrath that is adding to the already flooded areas — as well as creating new ones. A flash flood warning was put into effect Friday through Saturday here.
The National Weather Service in Raleigh expects around an inch to a 1.5 inches of rain in the area, though at one point some weather channels were saying the area could get up to three inches before the rain subsides Saturday night.
“If we wind up with the three inches of rain, we will have water approaching some roads throughout the county,” said Roylin Hammond, director of Scotland County Emergency Services. “Where water is already sitting beside the road in some areas — we could see it over the road.”
Hammond says as long as it stays warm, there will less of an issue because, if it were to get to freezing temperatures there could be black ice on the roads, making it dangerous to travel. But there are some areas that will be seeing water for a while.
“We’ve still got a few places like in Sneads Grove that are still flooded from Hurricane Florence,” Hammond said. “It’s kind of a compound issue, but there isn’t much we can do other than be careful and wait for it to run off.”
According to James Danco, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh, the rain should die down on Saturday with more scattered showers throughout the day, but only an inch or less is expected.
Overall Danco says there has seen an increase in rain in North Carolina this year.
“It’s been a very wet year throughout the region with Florence and Michael, along with the winter storm that just went past and a coastal storm that we had last month,” Danco said. “With these there’s been more rain than in previous years.”