On Wednesday, September 19, 2018, five days after Hurricane Florence hit the coast of North Carolina, Al and I finally made it to Lands End in Emerald Isle—well, sort of—to assess the damage to our beach house. Here’s what we saw.

Getting There

We’d waited until Wednesday, three days after the bridge from the mainland was open, because we’d read Coast Guard Road was flooded near the entrance to our neighborhood. We thought the water had subsided enough that we could drive through with Al’s heavy Yukon.  Not knowing it had rained AGAIN on Tuesday night, we found more water than we could handle.

So we parked two neighborhoods away. Thank you, Dolphin Ridge, for letting us use the parking lot at your clubhouse. We gathered our overnight bags and struck out for the beach, walking a half mile or so to get to our house.

The Beach

Here’s what we saw walking down the beach.

I especially hated to see the dead ocean life. I counted more than a half dozen sea gulls in less than a half mile.

The Neighborhood

Water, water, everywhere…. It looks worse than it was. Yes, the street in front of my house was (and probably still is) flooded.  Even if we’d gotten into the neighborhood, we couldn’t have driven to the house.  I’ve seen my street temporarily flood during summer thunderstorms, but nothing like this.

My house sits up high (thank the Lord), so the water is well away from it.

My neighbor is not so fortunate. His driveway, several feet lower than our lot, was flooded.  Fortunately, all he has on his first floor is a garage.

Signs of Recovery

Overall, the area of Emerald Isle I saw is in pretty good shape, considering the damage to the south of us and inland. Before I left on Thursday, I could already see signs of recovery.