WILMINGTON, N.C. — West Virginia native Sharon Underwood says she’s never seen anything quite like what she’s seen in the Wilmington, North Carolina area in recent days.
“The people who have lived here a long time are saying the same thing. Even Hurricane Floyd, which happened a long time ago, this is beyond what they’ve seen,” Underwood said Monday, hours after she had to be rescued from a friend’s home in the Wilmington area.
Underwood, the daughter of former West Virginia two-term governor, the late Cecil Underwood and former first lady Hova Underwood, moved to Wilmington more than a dozen years ago. When she saw the threat of Hurricane Florence she decided to get with her friends in Winnabow, North Carolina. But the water came up there too.
“It was kind of scary but the Marines were there to help us. They put us in the boat and drove us to a big truck and then a military truck drove us to the fire station in Winnabow,” Underwood said during a Monday appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Buckhannon native Blaine Daniel, a registered nurse, was looking for a safe route Monday to the nursing home where he works about 60 miles from Wilmington.
“I chose to stay with family and be part of the response crew where I work. Now I’m prepared to stay there for a number of days,” he said Monday on “Talkline.”
Daniel was hopeful a section of Interstate 40 would reopen so he could get to work. Daniel said Florence was “very intense.””People were just trying to keep their preparedness in line and be ready,” he said.
He was concerned Monday about more river flooding.
“So there’s kind of this delayed effect–where back home (in West Virginia) things come up quick and hopefully recede quickly. Where here you have this immediate flash flooding and this delayed concern of this very intense high water levels,” Daniel said.
Underwood said she and her friend thought they were prepared.
“He had a generator and plenty of water and food and everything but it just wasn’t enough to keep us there,” she said.
Underwood was in a shelter Monday and expected to be there for a few days.
“I don’t know when I’ll get home,” she said.
But she was confident she would be okay.
“My parents taught me persistence and endurance and that’s what’s getting me through this,” Underwood said.
Blaine Daniel, a WV native living in Wilmington, NC, joins @HoppyKercheval to give a personal account of the damage caused by Hurricane Florence. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/9zuNksqPc7
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) September 17, 2018