SPECIAL REPORT September 3, 2020

John Payne took this photo for the Johnston County Report of a Sheriff's Department rescue boat fighting swift currents during the rescue attempt below Galilee Road in the middle of what turned out to be a long night for first responders.

Unanticipated flash flooding, from a storm
system without a name, wreaked havoc

Another John Payne photo, this one of vehicles washed into a ditch by floodwaters at the intersection of NC 210 and Galilee Road near the Agricultural Center.


John Payne was "Johnny on the spot" Monday night, when floodwaters stalled this car beneath the Market Street overpass --- a place that used to flood frequently, but not so much in recent years since the town finished a massive drainage-improvement project.


Vermont Street at Meadowbrook Branch has been undermined twice by flash floods in recent years, but this time the street was spared. Still, it looks like they'll need to add more concrete rather than dirt at this spot before the next event comes our way.


Geese were floating calmly on high water past a pine tree at Holt Lake Wednesday afternoon, two days after the storm. The flood reached the foundations of several residences along the shoreline.

When Smithfield's Fire Chief John Blanton got the call that a vehicle had been washed away from Galilee Road late Monday night, he and his first responders already had their hands full rescuing motorists stranded by rushing floodwaters on Interstate 95 between Smithfield and Four Oaks.

So the Johnston County 9-1-1 Center summoned help from other fire and rescue departments to come to the aid of the frantic mother calling in distress from inside her flood-ravaged vehicle.

Units from Four Oaks and Princeton apparently were first to arrive on the scene at Galilee Road --- at the bottom of a hill not far from Packing Plant Road where a stream known as Arters Branch flows toward the nearby Neuse River.

Meanwhile, reports of flooding at several commercial buildings on US 301 South in Smithfield had begun to come in, and the water was rising toward residences at Holt Lake closer to Four Oaks.

From subsequent news and weather reports, that section of Johnston County became "Ground Zero" for torrential rainfall that apparently exceeded 10 inches between 8 p.m. Monday and 2 a.m. Tuesday.

The official reporting station at Johnston Regional Airport measured 8.18 inches during that time. Cornell Cox recorded 8.92 inches at his backyard weather station in residential South Smithfield.

The Neuse River at Smithfield, fed by heavy rainfall upstream, rose rapidly --- from a depth of five feet around midnight Monday to almost 18 feet by noon on Tuesday. The river peaked just above 19 feet at Smithfield on Wednesday. Flood stage is 15 feet. What's classified as "Major" flooding here begins at 20 feet.

Adding insult to injury were four sewage spills reported by the County of Johnston in the Four Oaks area that were attributed to the overwhelming rainfall:
• Approximately 78,000 gallons in the vicinity of 400 Fawnbrook Drive, discharged into a tributary of Holt Lake.
• Approximately 15,000 gallons in the vicinity of 96 Hillsboro Road, discharged into Meadow Branch, a tributary of Black Creek.
• Approximately 37,500 gallons in the vicinity of 560 Wilkins Road, discharged into Black Creek.
• Approximately 10,000 gallons in the vicinity of 747 Devil's Racetrack Road, discharged into an unnamed tributary of the Neuse River.

And it wasn't even a storm system worthy of a name.

VIEW Tuesday morning's televised news conference with Smithfield's Fire Chief John Blanton about the Galilee Road rescue mission>

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