Hurricane Florence brought historic flooding to the Carolina coast last week, causing permanent damage to the region.
Only 500 miles separates Nashville from the epicenter of where the storm hit in North Carolina, and many students from North Carolina here at Lipscomb have worried about whether or not their families were OK, or whether they would have a home to return to.
“I was and have been really concerned about Florence, for my family along the coast and about the impact it would have on my two home states,” said Allie Glenn, whose immediate family lives in Charleston but has extended family in coastal North Carolina.
“My family stocked up on a lot of essentials from stores, basically preparing in case they lost power or if Charleston were to flood,” Glenn said. “Classes were canceled for the whole week for my cousins in college.”
Hurricane Florence is expected to do upwards of 22 billion dollars worth of property damage when the flooding finally subsides, but Florence will never truly be over, as it is expected to reshape the Carolinas drastically, as well as major disaster protocol for the rest of the United States.
“I have lots of family in Samson County, North Carolina . . . and they are still out of power and will probably be for weeks,” student Aubrea Holland said. “They had lots of flooding and a lot of water damage. There was a mandatory evacuation order; however they have farms and animals and were forced to stay to take care of them. My uncle is also a first responder, so he and his family stayed to help with the aftermath.” Holland noted that her town panicked leading up to the storm, which led to a shortage of water bottles and gasoline.
A Lipscomb alumna, Madeline Montgomery, is a reporter for WPDE in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She spent upwards of 12 hours a day covering the hurricane while it was unfolding, and she is now covering the damage and the clean up of the coast.
“I was assigned to a motel on the coast, so I had to worry about having all of my gear and food and comfort items,” Montgomery said, adding that she also worried about her personal safety since she was still unsure when the hurricane would hit.
“It was also challenging because I had to figure out where to evacuate my cats to,” Montgomery added. “I also was worried for my home which is two blocks from the ocean. So there’s all these personal worries plus concerns of fulfilling professional obligations. It is also challenging getting from place to place because of the severe weather. “
Montgomery reported on 12 hours shifts, going live approximately every 10 minutes for stations around the country, including their own station.
“It was challenging to find new places to go, new people to interview and new things to do since there was such a small window of time between each live shot,” Montgomery said. “It was also pouring rain, and the wind was blowing us around so that added a distraction to the process.”
Montgomery has yet to rest after the strenuous work week because the aftermath of the storm has her covering all of the damage done to the area. So far, there have been 33 known fatalities caused by Hurricane Florence.
“My family and friends were all super worried for me, and they also were confused why I could not evacuate,” Montgomery said. “As a journalist, it is my job to be on the front lines to let people know what is going on. To be in those front lines, I sometimes have to be places that are not the safest.”
This morning, SGA announced opportunities for students to volunteer at the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort Inc. Students can volunteer at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Additionally, individual faculty and staff have reached out to students from the Carolinas to make sure their families were safe.
“The Head Resident at Elam emailed me and asked me about my family along with other staff members that knew where I lived,” Kaylin Bibbee said. “I was glad to know that I had people praying for me and my family’s safety.”
Bibbee’s family lives inland, about five hours from the coast. She said her family purchased a generator as her aunt has special needs, and they needed to plan for power outages.
Dawn Wisniewski is a student from Lexington, South Carolina, and is taking online classes through Lipscomb. She was in Lexington during Hurricane Florence.
“My professor at Lipscomb reached out to me before the storm came in to check on me and my family,” Wisniewski said. “I thought that was very sweet. He let me know that he was praying for us, and he asked me to keep in touch.”
The flooding of the Carolinas will be continuing for the next week as more rain hits the areas already affected.