The city of North Carolina can never fully recover from the double blow of storms

The city of North Carolina can never fully recover from the double blow of storms https://www.eresviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/La-ciudad-de-Carolina-del-Norte-nunca-puede-recuperarse-completamente-del-doble-golpe-de-las-tormentas

The city of North Carolina can never fully recover from the double blow of storms







FAIR BLUFF, N.C. (Reuters) - The childhood home Katrina Bullock returned to in the rural community of North Carolina in Fair Bluff about 16 years ago to care for her sick mother was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. 

A new roof was lifted after that. Walls saturated with muddy floods were being replaced and things were improving until a new storm, Hurricane Florence struck 23 months later, in September. 

"We were starting to meet again and there comes Florence, and that takes everything back," Bullock said. 

She and other residents of Fair Bluff, and many other communities in the southern and southeastern parts of North Carolina hit by the double blow of Matthew and Florence, are ranking among the last remnants, wondering if it's worth staying. 

Settlers first arrived in the area around Fair Bluff in the mid-18th century and one of the oldest buildings in Columbus County, where the city is located, is a trading post built on the banks of the Lumber River in the city, according to the local Chamber of Commerce. In the 19th century, railroads helped keep the economy moving. 

Experts say that such villages and towns face permanent changes, with fewer residents, fewer businesses and less chance of returning to the way things were only a generation ago. Older residents whose roots are deep and those who are too poor to leave soon will make up the bulk of the population. 

Who can leave, but others will do their best to rebuild. 

"There will be a real desire to make Fair Bluff the best it can be, but it can look and be something different from what it has historically been," said Patrick Woodie, president of the North Carolina Rural Center, an economic development organization. 

Even before Florence arrived, many small cities in North Carolina were struggling due to a decline in agriculture and manufacturing. According to the North Carolina Justice Center, a progressive investigation and advocacy of poverty rates in the state are now higher than after the recession a decade ago, due to the loss of small industries, such as industry. textile. organization. 

Matthew caused catastrophic floods in lower East Carolina and caused billions of dollars of damage. It took 28 lives in the United States, while Florence killed more than 50 and drove many rural communities into deeper despair. 









Katrina Bullock, who is still in the process of rebuilding after the floods caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, cleans the interior of her home after the floods caused by Hurricane Florence receded in Fair Bluff, North Carolina, USA. UU., September 29, 2018. REUTERS / Randall Hill



Fair Bluff is a largely agricultural community with a Main Street book finished by two churches and located next to the Lumber River, a generally peaceful canal that flooded both Matthew and Florence. 

The small commercial area of ​​the city was struggling to get back to business after Matthew and flooded again with Florence. Many wonder if it will ever open again. 

Almost all stores on Main Street closed after Matthew and Florence entered, the flood waters bringing new destruction to places like a furniture store that had yet to remove all of its water inventory two years ago. 

After the Flood of Florence receded, dark mud covered the floors of the affected areas and an odor floated in the air combining the odors of mold rot and a sewage plant that overflowed in the most recent storm. 

The mayor of Fair Bluff, Billy Hammond, believes that the city had approximately 1,000 residents before Matthew and stayed with approximately half that after, with many evacuees who never returned.  

The permanent population now is probably 350 to 400, most of the people whose houses were not flooded, he said. 

"It has been a ghost town for about two years," he said in an interview. "We'll just have to take it one day at a time and move on and wait for people to come back," he said. 

Fair Bluff is about 125 miles (200 km) south of Raleigh. About 21 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and the median income per household is $ 28,611, according to the United States Census data. In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, home to the vibrant city of Charlotte, the average family income is more than double that of Fair Bluff and the poverty rate is about half. 

In low-lying areas near the river where some of Fair Bluff's poorest people live, many have returned to homes damaged by the storm because they do not have the money to move or rebuild. A disproportionate number of low-income people live in floodplains in river communities, according to Gavin Smith, a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Randy Britt, 71, who has lived in Fair Bluff all his life. 

it owns buildings in the commercial area of ​​Main Street and is working to reopen a store affected by the flood. 









Slideshow (17 Images)




"There's always hope, if there was no hope, I would not be in Fair Bluff right now," he said in an interview. 





Additional reports by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Written by Jon Herskovitz; Edited by Frank McGurty and Tom Brown





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