Hillsborough: Water is Safe, Parks Closed Following Hurricane Florence

The Town of Hillsborough is in clean-up mode after the last remnants of Hurricane Florence dropped massive amounts of rain on central North Carolina Monday.

Portions of Hillsborough’s Riverwalk greenway along with parts of the Gold and Kings Highway parks were flooded by the Eno River on Monday.

Town officials said in a release late Monday that it was too soon to know when the parks would reopen once the water recedes. Crews will have to clear debris before the facilities can be reopened.

Residents are being urged not to move barriers or caution tape and enter closed off areas.

Hillsborough did see a “town treasure” tree, believed to be over 200 years old, fall during the storm on Friday. That caused more than 1,000 customers in the town to be without power for several hours. The massive tree has caused difficulty in figuring out logistics of removing the tree from Calvin Street, Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens said Monday.

“I think we’re going to arrange, maybe, for some parts of [the tree] that artists could use at some point,” Stevens said, “but we’re still trying to work that out.”

The town is also working to assure residents that the water is safe to drink, even during periods of discoloration.

“Suggestions of contamination are false,” officials said in a release. “The discoloration was caused by higher levels of naturally occurring minerals iron and manganese.”

Stevens added some of the discoloration could have been attributed to work being done ahead of the anticipated arrival of Hurricane Florence, including work to avoid flooding from the town reservoir.

“We were very concerned with the potential for flooding and the storms that, if we got more than 10 or 11 inches of rain – which was certainly a possibility,” Stevens said, “we would have some very significant damage.”

Residents who are continuing to experience discoloration “should use the water from their faucets to flush the water lines,” according to the release. Officials added that using the water to was light-colored fabrics could be damaging because “the higher levels of iron and manganese may discolor the material.”

More information from the town is available here.

Photo via Town of Hillsborough