Swamped by rain, Ocean Acres pleads for help

Things look a little better for now, but when the rain comes, the water will have nowhere to go. Ditches are brimming throughout the Outer Banks, and in Ocean Acres and Whispering Pines, the water has been rising into homes after heavy rain. And there has been a lot of heavy rain lately.

“If we had one house fall into the ocean,
it would be national news,” Michael Frasca told Kill Devil Hills commissioners Wednesday night in pleading for help to get the water out of the neighborhoods.

Unusually high amounts of rain in recent months have pushed the water table, normally 4 feet down, so high that is is now at the surface. Commissioner Bob Peele said that 12 inches of rain can raise the water table 2.5 feet. The topography of the area is a basin of sorts, and newer construction has covered vacant lots that once would collect the water.