Trailers evacuated after Pennington Creek floods

Officials had to act fast Wednesday night as rain caused the water in Pennington Creek to rise.

"Marlon Sullivan runs the city park and he called me around 11:30 last night said it was storming real bad," Chris Bailey said. " (He said) We had the trailers, we needed to get them moved and we needed to get down here as fast as we could."

Chris Bailey is from Wilburton, Ok.

Bailey and several others have been living out here by the creek since late February while they work on an 81-mile pipeline that goes from Bryan County through Johnston County to Carter County.

"A lot of the people have left because they shut us down a couple of days because of the rain and storms," Bailey said.

Bailey was one of those who decided to head back home but at around 2 A.M.Thursday morning, he found himself back at the campsite after he got word his trailer was in rising waters.

"The water had come up to the back wheels of my camper and had got fully up to my jeep, the front wheels were underwater," Bailey said. "Luckily, I was able to get into it, get it out of there quickly because the water was still rising."

Johnston County Emergency Management Director Jason Bryant says the creek rose about 12 feet from this week's storms.

While the waters may look calm from on top, Bryant says the force of the water coming over the dam is creating a current that could damage property and be potentially life-threatening to anyone who decides to jump in.

"We had to use a tractor to lift up the front of the trailers and drag them up out of the water and it was quite an ordeal," Bryant said.

'Everybodys tired," Bailey said. "Everybody's just in a hurry trying to get what's important out cause that's our livelihood, all this is our livelihood."

Bryant says for now they are keeping an eye on the water level as more storms are expected to hit the area.