Chatham Co Emergency Mgmt on Haw River During Flooding Events

Message from Chatham Co Emergency Mgmt re: County-maintained Haw River Access Points During Flooding Events

Based on the current forecast we DO NOT intend to close the County-maintained Haw River access points unless it reaches Moderate Flood Stage.  We will continue to monitor conditions over the weekend.  If the decision is made to close we will post to the County’s Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/ChathamCountyNC) and notify this group when they’ve been closed/reopened.

The most recent river forecast shows the Haw River at Bynum peaking at 13.4 ft Friday evening (below a Moderate flood stage of 15-17’).

Based on our discussions in November 2018, Chatham County will consider closing County-maintained access points at Bynum Beach, US 15-501, and US 64 E if the Haw River reaches, or is imminently approaching Moderate Flood Stage, according to the Haw River Near Bynum gauge (http://www.lowerhaw.org/river-levels).  Our goals are:

(1)    Reduce/eliminate the need for high risk rescues on the Haw as a result of paddlers attempting to navigate during extreme conditions

(2)    Prevent access and further damage to flooded parking lots and launches, and injury from submerged hazards

(3)    NOT to prevent river access to paddlers unnecessarily

Even though we do not intend to close the river access points, please reinforce to your contacts in the paddling community that any of our rivers in flood stage can be dangerous, even for the experienced, and rescue or recovery by public safety could be delayed several hours until weather and river conditions improve.

We welcome feedback from the local paddling community on ways to improve this process.

Steve Newton