Locals react to Nanticoke Road closure
WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – It’s been four days since Delmarva experienced some major rain and even flash flooding. And believe it or not, we’re still dealing with some of the damage it caused.
Parts of Wicomico County saw over seven inches of rain in just a few hours late last week. Rain that proved to be too much for some parts of the area.
“A whole lot goes on down here it’s a very busy road and when you cut it in half it inconveniences a lot of people,” explains
Nanticoke Road is now a complete wash out. The rain last Thursday and Friday proved to be too much for this part of the road to handle.
A road that hundreds of locals use everyday, one that is no longer an option.
“I use Nanticoke everyday and now it looks like it’s going to be a long winter again,” says one local resident David Reese.
The frustrating news for many in the area is the fact that this isn’t the first time this part of the road has been closed. Back in 2016, the exact same area of Nanticoke Road suffered similar weather-related damage.
“The only thing that irritates me is the fact that they’ve known this has been a problem for a lot of years when it went down two years ago they put a fix in,” explains Gary Foxwell, owner of Countryside Marketplace and Deli.
It’s an inconvenience for many, but for Foxwell it’s more than that.
“This is the second time it’s happened in a little over two years. It will cost me 50 percent of my business I project, that’s what it cost last time and at this point in time they can’t tell me how long it’s going to take them to get it back open.”
Reese adds, “I get all my gas at that little gas station there, now I can’t get to it. I mean I have to drive way around but what are you going to do.”
SHA is currently pumping out the water and assessing the damage while they figure out how to fix it, but we’re told Nanticoke Road will stay closed anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months.
“Disaster is what it would be. We’re still evaluating, we know what it did when it was closed for two months if we magnify that to let’s say a six month worst case scenario, I don’t know if I could continue to stay open,” explains Foxwell.
But for the locals who use it everyday, “I’d put up with it for a year if it fixes it and fixes it right.”
