KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Several residents in Kannapolis are being displaced after their neighborhood was flooded by heavy rainfall.
Residents were given a notice saying they can't enter their homes until an inspection is completed. On Thursday, Duke Energy cut off the power to at least 12 homes.
The city of Kannapolis says the homes are unsafe and damaged by floodwaters after Irish Buffalo Creek spilled into the Town Country Mobile Home Park on Tiffany Drive on Tuesday.
“I got kids, that’s what I’m worried about,” Nivia Alarcon, a resident, said.
WCNC Charlotte looked at Cabarrus County deeds, which show a limited liability corporation (LLC) based out of Tennessee owns the land under the mobile home park.
Residents say they haven't been able to get ahold of the property owners, the City of Kannapolis, or Cabarrus County officials.
“We can’t be here until we get it inspected, they were supposed to be here this morning but they haven’t come," Alarcon said. “We want answers, and not just myself but everyone here, there's a lot of other families that are affected by this too."
There are a lot of questions, like who will pay for the damage, and what happens if residents can no longer live in their homes. WCNC Charlotte has asked Kannapolis city officials those questions, but we have yet to receive a response as of publication.
Property insurance experts say local governments play a critical role in flood risk management and can condemn the land.
“If their mobile home or house is sitting in a floodplain you don’t want them dying because they thought it was safe enough,” Ron Snouffer, a property insurance expert, said.
Snouffer says situations like this happen more often than we think.
“Unfortunately, people will buy land where there’s floodplains, and put in low-income housing, rent them out to people that probably can’t afford other housing somewhere else," Snouffer said. "They just take the risk because they buy these mobile homes for $5,000-10,000, and if it floods out they can fix it up cheap, or even if they lose the whole thing it doesn’t cost them that much.”
According to Duke Energy, customers living in mobile homes are responsible for the service pole and for the service line that runs from the pole attachment to the meter. Customers are also responsible for their meters.
The city of Kannapolis says the American Red Cross and other non-profits are working to assist residents. The aid group opened a temporary shelter at a nearby school Thursday night.
Despite that, some residents say they're not getting the help they need and don't know what to do, especially long-term.
Contact Lexi Wilson at lwilson@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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