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Florence in Review Part 2: Evacuees return, inland flooding intensifies

Three days after Florence made landfall, Carolina Beach residents lined up hundreds of cars deep before passing through a police barricade on the north end of Snow’s Cut bridge to return to their homes.

Monday, Sep. 17 | An officer checks for town identity cards that would allow residents access to the island.
Monday, Sep. 17 | Charter boat captain Dave Tilley arrived at 5:45 a.m. to claim first spot in line, eager to return to his home on the island’s north end; Tilley knew he’d have to pump water from the first floor, and then check his bait freezer.

“The bait freezer has been without power for five days. You can image what it smells like now,” Tilley said.

Monday, Sep. 17 | Further back in line was Jen Pavlov, who had stayed on the island alone without cell phone service for five days. She had crossed the bridge Monday morning for grocery shopping in Monkey Junction.

“We had flooding, no power for five days, no food,” Pavlov said. “The water was getting up to the first floor. They had big, lifted military vehicles honking their horns in case you needed rescue.”

Monday, Sep. 17 | Crossing Snow's Cut Bridge into Carolina Beach.
Monday, Sep. 17 | Flooding on Lake Park Boulevard.
Monday, Sep. 17 | Flooded homes along Carolina Beach Lake, looking east.
Monday, Sep. 17 | A flooded Carolina Beach Lake, looking west.
Monday, Sep. 17 | After visiting stretches of the beach on the north end of the island next to the broken pier, coastal engineer Adam Priest estimated 10 to 20-foot wide escarpments running along the edge of the sand dune.

“Although they did lose a lot of sand, it could’ve been a lot worse. You lose that much dune, as bad as it is, it did what it was supposed to. That’s the reason these coastal communities pay a lot of money to build these beaches up, and to build their dunes up, so they have that buffer when the storms come,” Priest said.

Monday, Sep. 17 | A dead bird on Carolina Beach.
Monday, Sep. 17 | Dead fish on Canal Drive.
Monday, Sep. 17 | A Coast Guard cargo plane flies over a flooded section of Atlanta Avenue and 4th Street just north of the Carolina Beach Lake.
Tuesday, Sep. 18 | Back in Wilmington, a flooded house off Pine Grove Drive.
Tuesday, Sep. 18 | Water Street in downtown Wilmington.
Tuesday, Sep. 18 | A crab on Water Street in downtown Wilmington.
Tuesday, Sep. 18 | Much of the flooding after the hurricane came from the region's rising rivers. Here, the Cape Fear River facing west from downtown Wilmington.

As the sun began to set Wednesday, Sep. 19, in the rural river town of Currie, a Charlotte Fire Department crew was staked out at the flood line on Borough Spur Road, near the Moores Creek confluence with the Black River.

Wednesday, Sep. 19 | Flooding at the intersection of Borough Spur and Alexis Hales roads near the Black River in Currie, an unincorporated community in western Pender County.
Wednesday, Sep. 19 | Mike Hicks, left, helps lift a grill onto his back porch in a flooded neighborhood on Alexis Hales Road near the Black River.
Wednesday, Sep. 19 | Mike Hicks' backyard.
Wednesday, Sep. 19 | A submerged mailbox on Alexis Hales Road near the Black River.
Wednesday, Sep. 19 | A flooded home on Alexis Hales Road near the Black River.
Wednesday, Sep. 19 | Alan Creech feeds his chickens in a flooded neighborhood near the Black River.

"You start getting the feeling that you’re beginning to be surrounded,” Creech, said. "Each day the water creeps up. I didn’t think it was going to be as much water as this. In hindsight, if you’d known, maybe you’d have done some things differently."

Wednesday, Sep. 19 | As the fire crew boated back to their station on Borough Spur Road to pack up for the night, a helicopter passed over the Black River and circled low over the flooded neighborhood, looking for any residents in distress.

The next day, Thursday, Sep. 20, floodwater was making its way through Brunswick County as people were still being asked to evacuate, one week after Hurricane Florence's landfall in North Carolina. Waters had crested at levels one Brunswick County Sheriff's deputy called "biblical."

Thursday, Sep. 20 | The Brunswick County Sheriff's Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP), used to drive through floodwaters after Florence.
Thursday, Sep. 20 | Sheriff's deputy Brian McMillan reaches into his bag inside the MRAP, the Sheriff's Office's armored vehicle used to drive through floodwaters.
Thursday, Sep. 20 | Brunswick County Sheriff's Deputy Brian McMillan observes flooding in southern Brunswick County.

Officers had made 651 rescues since Hurricane Florence first hit the week before, according to Brunswick County Sheriff Department spokesperson, Emily Flax.

Thursday, Sep. 20 | Chief Deputy Charles Miller operates the Sheriff's Office's airboat, something he learned to do with "a lot of practice."
Thursday, Sep. 20 | A submerged home as the floodwater from the Waccamaw River makes its way through southern Brunswick County.
Thursday, Sep. 20 | Sheriff's deputy Brian McMillan sits in the front seat of an armored vehicle used to drive through floodwaters.

“I was working for the Sheriff’s Office back in Floyd and it wasn’t this bad,” Lieutenant Israel West said during a drive-through over Kingtown Road, a route that was then underwater. “I mean, this is biblical.”

Thursday, Sep. 20 | Chief Deputy Charlie Miller (center) makes a phone call after being interviewed by Fox News in flooded areas of Brunswick County.
Thursday, Sep. 20 | A submerged home as the floodwater from the Waccamaw River makes its way through southern Brunswick County.
Thursday, Sep. 20 | Sheriff's deputy Brian McMillan looks back at a flooded cross marker near Kingstown Road in Brunswick County.
Thursday, Sep. 20 | Chief Deputy Charles Miller operates the Sheriff's Office's airboat.
Thursday, Sep. 20 | Sheriff's deputy Brian McMillan looks at flooded vehicles that have likely leaked fluid into floodwaters in near Kingstown Road in Brunswick County.

Credits:

Port City Daily photos/Mark Darrough and Johanna Ferebee

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