HOPE MILLS, N.C. (AP) -- A stuck flood gate was blamed for the temporary evacuation of 40 homes and a retirement community after rain-swollen lake water threatened this town outside Fayetteville. No injuries were reported.
The dam on Hope Mills Lake, a recreational body in this community of about 11,000, broke about 10 a.m. Monday after the malfunction, said Doc Nunnery, Cumberland County emergency services director.
Police officers went to the homes and the Happy Valley Retirement Center to direct people to leave. Residents were allowed to return to their homes around 4:45 p.m., said Stacy Lemons, a Cumberland County fire dispatcher.
Most of the rest retirement home's residents are ambulatory and the water was unlikely to reach them, but officials ``didn't want to take any chances,'' Nunnery said. The retirement center has about 30 residents, according to a woman answering the telephone there.
Fayetteville, about 10 miles north of Hope Mills, recorded about 3 inches of rain in the 24 hours ending Monday morning, the National Weather Service said.
Hope Mills Mayor Edwin Deaver said officials tried to drain the lake to alleviate growing pressure early Monday, but one of the flood gates got stuck. The weather service issued flood warnings for central North Carolina after several days of steady rain.
``The pressure was so much, they couldn't force the gate up,'' Deaver said. ``They were afraid if they did it would break the gate. And by then the water was going over the dam. It was just a sudden surge of water.''
