Pender County, North Carolina · Burgaw
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Pipes freeze in Pender County on about 3 nights a year, mostly January. Older homes, 9% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in August. Pender County averages 14.8 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
9% of homes here predate 1960, when clay and cast iron sewer laterals were standard. Roots and cracks in those lines are a common cause of backups.
Pender County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 7.76 inches, and about 38 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
7% of occupied homes in Pender County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the North Carolina county median of 11.7%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 113 times a year in Pender County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Pender County covers 871 square miles of southeast North Carolina, with about 65,550 residents and 31,844 homes. The county seat is Burgaw, and Hampstead, Surf City and Rocky Point round out the largest towns. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1998.
43/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Pender County ranks 74 of 100 North Carolina counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Pender County ranks highest compared with other North Carolina counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for North Carolina, and pipes still freeze. It averaged 38 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 3 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 100 North Carolina counties that's 74th.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs January. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
Freezing nights typically start around Nov 21 and end around Mar 19.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of North Carolina. About 14.8 days a year bring an inch or more (13th of 100), most often in August, out of 59.6 inches of total precipitation. On September 6, 2019, 7.76 inches fell in a single day. The worst three-day stretch dropped 15.06 inches, ending September 16, 2018, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 38 days a year swing from below freezing at night to above freezing by day. Those freeze-thaw cycles feed ice dams on roofs, open cracks in foundations and driveways, and stress pipes that are already marginal.
Housing
Roughly 20% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Pender among the newer housing stocks of North Carolina's 100 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 46% of today's homes. In houses that new, the weak points are washing machine hoses, ice maker lines, water heaters and sump pumps rather than the pipes in the walls.
About 34% of homes went up between 1980 and 1999. Some houses from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s were plumbed with polybutylene, a gray plastic pipe known for failing at fittings. A plumber can tell you in a few minutes whether you have it.
21% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, above the North Carolina county median of 17.4%. Their water lines run under the floor behind the skirting, so a torn skirt or failed heat tape freezes them faster than lines in a site-built house.
The Census counted 21% of homes as vacant, above the North Carolina county median of 13.1%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
Pender County averages 113 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in August. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally 30 to 50%. Basements can pass 60% on their own in summer, so a dehumidifier matters even without a leak, and anything wet should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
Mold remediation: what to expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Pender County it's 1% utility gas, 90% electric, 6% propane and under 1% wood. Most homes here heat with gas or electricity, so cooking and electrical faults are the likelier fire sources. Even a contained kitchen fire can send soot through the ductwork to every room.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Pender County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Pender gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. Columbus County has the oldest housing nearby, with 47% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Pender | North Carolina median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 9.2% | 18% | 92 of 100 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 20% | 41% | 96 of 100 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 46% | 26% | 9 of 100 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 21% | 17% | 37 of 100 |
| Vacant homes | 21% | 13% | 30 of 100 |
| Wood or propane heat | 6.6% | 12% | 82 of 100 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 3/yr | 5/yr | 74 of 100 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 15/yr | 12/yr | 13 of 100 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 38/yr | 57/yr | 83 of 100 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 113/yr | 89/yr | 10 of 100 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest North Carolina county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Pender County: freezing from January, heavy rain in July, August and September.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology