Here comes Florence. Blech.

[Tim]

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear cuz you know it coulda been a lot worse. Now you will be once again reminded of the exponential cost of multiple oats. 🤪

[Frank]

I finally got a reply from my old sailing friends in Orietal.
They are fine, minimal damage and were totally impressed and feeling blessed by the sense of community and helpfulness that was demonstrated throughout, saying it was amazing how the storm drew everyone together with a shared commitment to make it through.

[Captain Smollett]

found this on FB supposedly in Oriental I am assuming from Florence

Tim, and others,

In the past week, I've seen that and a lot worse.  Thought I'd drop by and give a bit of update straight from "ground zero."

(1) First, Gaelic Sea made it through the storm just fine in her "temporary" (7 years now!) berth at Hurricane Boat Yard.  Last I was down to check on her, she was at the end of the line nearest to the water (where the pull the boats with the lift), but she's since been put on a small trailer and moved up to the "upper" end of the yard.

They only had three boats in the yard float free.  That's pretty awesome considering the yard is RIGHT on the Bay River and had to have had a surge comparable to ours.

(2) In several places around town, boats are a mess.  We've seen sunk sailboats, boats in the marshes, bows of boats sticking up out of the water, boats piled on top of other boats, etc.  There's one in Fairfield Harbor (a retirement community surrounded on two sides by tributaries of the Neuse River) with a piling through the hull.

In short, there's a LOT of boat damage.  Tidewater Marine, just up the Trent River from town looks to have been wiped out (boats tossed around like pick-up sticks), and Bridgepoint, where we used to live, looks to be condemned again with severe dock damage, such boats, etc.

A friend of mine that has a boat at New Bern Grand Marina right across the river from Bridgepoint had no damage except for some torn canvas.

(3) The damage to the community was very localized, but make no mistake where the damage occurred, it is bad.  We got out to help folks starting last week and got into some of the harder hit areas.  Just yesterday we got our first looks at some of the areas near downtown.  Some folks lost EVERYTHING, and the rebuilding will be going six months if not longer.

(4) As Kurt mentioned, I think Irene brought us much stronger winds, but the surge + subsequent rain and secondary flood damage this time was tremendous.

One family we know that lives on the Trent River did not see the water reach their house in 1999's Floyd (one of the more notorious flooding events here) or 2016's Matthew, but the bottom floor of their split level flooded in Florence.

That's weird thing, to me at least: the Trent side of the watershed was worse this time than either Floyd or Matthew.  The Neuse flood gauge in Kinston crested about 2 ft lower than both Floyd and Matthew.  It just shows how localized the rainfall was and that parts of the watershed got far more than others. Some areas got more damaged by the surge and others moreso by the rain.

So, sailfar friends, please keep this community in your thoughts and prayers.  The crew of Gaelic Sea were quite lucky and believe me, we are humbled by that outcome.  Many here lost their homes and all possessions; a few lost their lives.  Many of the harder hit areas are either poor neighborhoods or retirement communities with high population of the elderly.