Intense flooding causes bridge collapses and stands vehicles across southern North Carolina

AccuWeather

In Southport, storm chaser Aaron Jayjack was there when an SUV fell through a collapsed bridge, but that was just one of of many problems across the area due to a tropical rainstorm on Sept. 16.

Transcript

00:00We want to check in now with storm chaser Aaron Jayjack live from Southport, North Carolina.

00:04Aaron, we understand a water rescue unfolded as you were live on the air with Bernie and Brie

00:09earlier this afternoon. I happened to step into the studio and look up at the monitor and it was

00:13pretty staggering what was happening before our very eyes. So what happened with that?

00:19Yeah, so I've been here in Southport all morning, all afternoon. We had that significant band of

00:25rain that pummeled Carolina Beach and then shifted its way here to Southport. I sat over

00:32Southport for 45 minutes or so before moving a little bit further down the coast towards Oak

00:36Island before then swinging back here and I was in the middle of doing a live shot at one of the

00:41many low water crossings you could see are flooded over and one particular low water crossing a

00:47bridge over a creek collapsed as a man tried to drive through the floodwaters. I had seen multiple

00:54other cars leading up to that in the moments before that maybe a dozen, two dozen cars make

00:59it through there. I didn't have any problems getting through there but then finally one

01:04car was not able to make it through there, fell through the bridge. Another man came to help me.

01:09I was in a little bit of shock what was going on, quite surprised what happened. Assess the

01:14situation to make sure I could be safe. I'm trying to help the guy, trying to talk to come out the

01:20back. Someone came, helped me out but he busted out the window of the vehicle and the man was able

01:25to climb out and unfortunately he was safe. Only a minor wound but it is shows why it is so dangerous

01:32to be here driving through floodwaters. You know they say to turn around, don't drown. Well that

01:38is an exact reason why. You never know what's going on underneath the waters as you know in

01:43this particular case the dirt underneath the bridge had washed away and when this gentleman

01:48tried to drive over the bridge it collapsed on him so very dangerous to drive through floodwaters

01:53and you know and right now we're still seeing cars driving through the floodwaters here behind me.

01:58In this case it's not a bridge it's just water over this roadway so not as dangerous of a

02:03situation but still turn around, don't drown, keep you and your family safe when you're in a

02:08situation like this. And Aaron have you been able to get a sense was all of the flooding tied to

02:13rainfall or has there been some storm surge affecting some of the areas that you're around

02:17as well? Yeah this is 100 percent all rainfall. You know I think we are getting rates of four

02:24five maybe even up to six inches per hour of rainfall probably around a foot maybe more than

02:30a foot of rain here in the Southport area so yeah this is all runoff now and it's all rushing

02:36towards the coast going into the Atlantic Ocean and you know there's probably going to be some

02:39problems here for a while. I talked to a woman who said she's been stuck here since noon trying

02:45to get to Wilmington and she can't find a way out of Southport North Carolina right now to get

02:49to Wilmington so bad situation here tonight on the southeastern coast of North Carolina. Pretty

02:54wild and we're looking at some of the drone videography of that Mercedes Benz Cruiser that

02:59ended up in the water there and we can't help but notice as Bernie mentioned earlier it appears that

03:04there is a larger construction project just adjacent to that with perhaps a newer bridge

03:08being built to replace the old one. Is that lining up with what you're seeing as well what you saw?

03:13That's exactly right you know that's I guess it's a little bit of a silver lining because

03:17that that bridge where the car that the car went through it's obviously not going to be usable

03:22probably ever again they'll probably just tear that down and it would take it take you know

03:25at least we've shortened that they'll shorten the time to be able to get that that roadway

03:29back in tact with this new bridge it's already halfway constructed.

03:34And Aaron J. Jack I can still see behind you some again people trying to navigate through roads that

03:40probably are not stable out there and tow trucks and other emergency responders there

03:45helping with some water rescues and so forth. So Aaron stay safe I know there's a lot going

03:50on there even though has the rain ended where you are it certainly looks that way on radar.

03:55All right thank you. All right and as we we'll hear from Aaron again and you'll be able to see

04:00some more footage of his on AccuWeather.com and the AccuWeather app.

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