Downtown Bladenboro has been left underwater several times over the past 10 years that resulted in millions of dollars of damages to homes and businesses.
Friday, May 29, the town received help to reduce the risk of major flooding when the next storm strikes.
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality announced a $1.6 million nature-based flood resilience project that will create floodplain storage and restore natural streamflow to reduce flood risk and recurring flooding in downtown Bladenboro.
The Bladenboro South Main Street Flood Resiliency Project is funded by the N.C. Flood Resiliency Blueprint within DEQ.
“Bladenboro has been devastated by several floods over the years,” Bladen County Commissioner Charles Ray Peterson, a Bladenboro resident, said during a news conference to announce the project. “It’s a community full of good hard working and caring people who want their community back.”
“This is the first project of its kind here in Bladenboro, and I want to thank the project vendor, Resource Environmental Solutions, along with DEQ, Senator Brent Jackson, and Representative William Brisson for their help in making this project possible.”
The project will improve drainage in the downtown area by clearing and widening a blocked culvert. Increasing the outlet’s capacity will restore natural streamflow to better manage extreme rainfall, DEQ officials said. The project’s nature-based approach includes planting trees and native plants in the floodplain to stabilize stream banks, reduce flood risk and create over 3.9 million gallons of floodplain storage (enough water to cover 12 acres of land at one-foot depth). These steps will also control erosion and improve water quality and wetland habitat, according to DEQ.
DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson joined state and local officials and project partners in Bladenboro to make the announcement. Extreme rainfall events, including Tropical Storm Debby in 2024, Hurricane Florence in 2018 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, caused extensive damage to businesses and homes in Bladenboro.
“Bladenboro has taken important steps to increase resiliency downtown following three major flooding events in only eight years, including relocating businesses outside the floodplain,” Wilson said. “This flood resilience project will reduce Bladenboro’s vulnerability to damage from future floods and will protect lives, homes, and businesses.”
The DEQ Division of Mitigation Services’ Natural Infrastructure Flood Mitigation Program will construct the project, and the N.C. Flood Resiliency Blueprint will provide the funds. The General Assembly established both programs in 2020 and 2021, respectively, to help communities build resiliency to more frequent and severe flooding events.
The NIFMP uses natural infrastructure, or projects that restore natural landscapes or ecological processes, to reduce flooding in small, targeted watersheds. Projects can include building wetlands, restoring streams and other nature-based solutions that help store water and reduce flooding.
Last year, DEQ completed the first project under the NIFMP, a $1.6 million stormwater wetland basin on Wayne Community College’s campus, which reduces flooding in the Stoney Creek Watershed along Wayne Memorial Drive in Goldsboro.
Since 2024, the N.C. Flood Resiliency Blueprint has provided more than $43 million for 84 projects in six river basins.
In April, the program also released new advisory flood maps for five Eastern North Carolina river basins, including the Lumber River Basin where Bladenboro resides, plus the Cape Fear, Neuse, White Oak, and Tar-Pamlico river basins.
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