These funds will help break that cycle. Some people in our area lived with flooded houses for two and a half months after last year s high water, said Raymond Pennington, Mayor of Lumberton. I am very glad we can now get them out of these areas that have recurring flood problems. Because of problems with the N. C. Indian Cultural Center spillway, fishermen have stayed away from the adjacent lake. When we get heavy rains, the spillway simply can t funnel high volumes of water from the lake into the downstream creek, said Ernestine Bulifant, operations director for the Center.
Water then washes over the roadway that runs along the top of the dam.
To prevent that from happening, we ve been keeping the lake level artificially low. That drives the fish farther into the middle of the lake which has discouraged fishermen from fishing from the shoreline.