STORM STORIES: Carolina Beach resident says Florence beat Fran
Hertzel spent Hurricane Florence at a one-story home at
When it brought some of its worst winds and rains to
As the storm slowly passed, Hertzel watched from the home's front porch -- which faces west.
"We sat there on that porch. Those trees over there laid down," Hertzel said, gesturing to some pines along the property line. "We never got wet, we never got wind. How that happened, I don't know. I said, 'We must be living right or something.'"
At one point Sunday, Hertzel and his friends ventured out to check on damage to the rest of the town. Nearby, the
Hertzel's Sunday exploration, though, was cut short when a police officer saw the group wandering the streets and ordered them home over his loudspeaker.
"The man got us," Hertzel said.
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Historic downtown battered, bruised, but lives on
Residents of downtown
Hurricane
One of the hardest hit areas was
He was there for Fran in 1996 and
"We got flooded in the back and that's never happened before," Parker said. "But we're lucky. No trees on the house."
Across the street at the historic
Parker and other residents think a tornado spawned by
"It was a swish and then a crash," said
All the trees went down around the same time Friday morning, she said.
"That's not wind, that's water," Willetts said of the trees that were pushed over and uprooted. "Those trees could be re-planted, but it would be prohibitively expensive."
Tornado or not,
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A welcomed hot meal
It didn't matter that all the chairs were put up on tables at the
The restaurant team took orders off a limited menu outside and then handed them through the doorway. Customers ordered cheeseburgers, french fries and there were freshly brewed batches of sweet tea customers could buy by the jug.
Owner
"We saw the lineman in our parking lot so we got to work first feeding them and making them coffee to send them back out on the road with," Brodie said. "Then we opened for customers and people are just excited to get out if their homes and have some hot food."
"It's been three days of hell," Chasco said.
Their ceiling started to leak and crumble in on their home on
"Hot food is just mandatory," Chasco said.
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Waiting for rescue
Strow didn't evacuate from her NorthChase home of five years because it has never flooded, even during the storms it weathered before she lived there. So when water started seeping and then rushing through the walls and the floor just after
But she didn't have much time to grapple with it. The water was rising fast.
"I was alone with two dogs and I drive a
So she called 911 and waited. By midnight, the water reached her waist. She continued to call 911, but was told she was on a list and they would get to her when they could.
That was when she unfolded the kayak and started floating with her couch and coffee table, both of which were no longer fixed to the ground. There, she waited, with a few candles burning on the window sill and her dogs, Pickles and Becca, keeping her company.
Around
"They were awesome," she said. "They had a john boat and they were just riding around the neighborhood looking for people in need. They said they wouldn't have known I was there if not for the candles."
After scooping up Strow, her dogs and all she could carry, they picked up a few more neighbors and took them back to their makeshift base before delivering them to the Loew's Food on
Her parents live in Monkey Junction but couldn't get to her until Sunday morning brought some sunshine and receding flood waters.
Sunday afternoon, she returned to her home, now free of the water but too far gone to inhabit.
"I pretty much lost everything," she said. "My car is totaled. It's done. Everything waist high is flooded. I didn't have flood insurance so that's gonna be a headache."
Then, she starts to laugh.
"I laugh because it's kind of the only way I can get through it," she said. "I'm safe and my dogs are safe. Everything else can be replaced."
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Mezzo-soprano looks forward to post-storm healing
Hurricane
The downtown
At about
"I thought the wind was going to tear the roof off," Findlen said.
Previously, Findlen was resigned to riding out the storm "but I really wasn't that concerned," she said."This house is 174 years old. It's been through storms."
With her husband,
A large magnolia tree in Findlen's front yard provided a close call. It broke in half and narrowly missed her house, coming to rest against her stately front porch. She had started the process of asking about having the tree trimmed or removed, a process that has now been expedited by Hurricane Florence.
Nothing in her home music studio, which includes a Schoenhut baby piano, was damaged. Findlen has rehearsals scheduled for a local concert, but her heart isn't in it right now, she said.
The arts will likely prove healing for
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Uncertainty for folks left in shelters
"It hasn't changed much, it's still the same high school," she said Monday. "It's just weird sleeping in your old high school."
Gorman said she had been unable to check on her apartment since before the storm struck Thursday. Power is out at the apartment office, and she recently moved, so she doesn't know any neighbors to call.
Monday, she crossed
"I don't think I'll stay again if we get a hurricane," she said. "I think I'll go away to the
The stress of being away from home was evident on many faces at Hoggard.
George of
"It's almost like we're criminals or something," he said.
The next step for the family was finding a clear road back to
"Once we've gotten to that part where we've got somebody to give us a ride, we've got to figure out a way home," he said.
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'I had fun'
Taylor, the maintenance manager at
Taylor described trying to walk along his second floor railing in the middle of
"Last night here on the end of the island it was raining so hard I thought the world was coming to an end," Taylor said.
As the storm passed, Taylor assessed the damage, taking in the cottages' missing shingles and the broken window at one resident's apartment -- a hole that was quickly covered with plywood.
"I did the best I could," Taylor said, "because I was the only one here."
Monday, Taylor had gathered a quarter-full garbage can of shingles and and thrown them away. He was helping returning residents unpack pickup beds full of things and had helped a nearby business owner clean up a leak in his store.
Asked if he was glad he stayed, Taylor said, "Yes, sir. I had fun."
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Standing strong
"It's great. I really expected it to be a lot worse here. Overall I'm extremely pleased," said Robertson, who owns the pier. "We dodged a bullet."
Monday, Robertson's pickup truck was parked in front of the pierhouse with plywood, a ladder and a drill in the back. Seagulls perched on boards where railings stood before they were blown off by
It will likely be a couple of weeks before the pier is open again, Robertson said, a timeline he is pleased with.
"The biggest thing is going to be getting supplies here to do it," said Robertson, who stayed on
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Grocery stores offer glimmer of hope
OGDEN -- Monday morning the Ogden Publix looked like the hottest nightclub in town, with a line down the sidewalk and police letting people in a few at a time.
After four days of eating hurricane supplies,
"I never want to eat peanut butter and jelly again," she said.
Lawrence and
"They definitely are a little bit stuck, because
"It sucked," Meghan said. "I would say that Saturday was worse than the actual hurricane, because that's when the sheets of rain came."
Like many others in
While Bradish's power came back Sunday, the Moorman family was still in the dark. They were hoping to pick up something grill-able Monday after finishing off the last of the hot dogs Sunday, a meal Meghan said rivaled any restaurant's.
"I will remember that hot dog for the rest of my life," she said.
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Oh and other employees slept -- or tried to sleep -- at the
"My boyfriend's family lost their home out in
Earlier this week, Oh posted a Facebook video describing how looters have targeted several of her neighbor businesses in
"I'm not playing with them," she said. "What they've been doing is kicking in the bottom of the doors so when the police ride by, you can't hardly tell that it's been looted."
Oh owns two other properties in town, including a recording studio, and said she was planning to open them up to people whose homes have been destroyed. She worries how locals will start their recovery process if they're unable to get to work and earn wages.
"This homeless situation is going to be crazy -- I have no idea how
But she noted that
"I feel overwhelmed, but also overwhelmingly positive," she said. "Absolutely everyone is welcomed here always."
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Hoping to get back
Except this one.
"We've never really left. We've stayed for all of them actually. And we've always stayed in our house," Fletcher said. "This one kind of scared me so we decided to head to the mountains"
As warnings of what could be coming spread through
Neighbors and friends have been keeping them up-to-date on the how the town fared. They've been told the damage is minimal, with businesses reopening in town.
The problem isn't what awaits them at home, it's the path getting there.
Major flooding on the main thoroughfares that lead back to
"I don't know if we'll make it or not," Fletcher said.
Just doing their jobs
Oreos, Chips Ahoy and a large supply of non-perishable foods are keeping the
Fire lieutenant
"We're fortunate to have power here so we are just ready to go out and help others that are not as fortunate and need our help," said Paye.
During the storm, Paye said, getting access to people was the most difficult part of the job and firefighters have spent the past few days with chainsaws in hand and checking on homes where there was flash flooding.
"It's just the job," Paye said.
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Taking things in stride
OGDEN -- As Duke Energy trucks rolled down
"The house fared pretty well, just a couple of leaks," said Massey, waving at every car that passed. "This neighborhood's OK. We don't have power, but who does, you know?"
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>>READ MORE: Click here for complete coverage of Hurricane Florence
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