CEAN ISLE, N.C. — People living in Ocean Isle are watching a new hurricane season begin while last year's is still fresh in their minds.

What You Need To Know

  • Ocean Isle was ground zero for Hurricane Isaias in August 2020

  • Homeowners on the East End of the island took the brunt of the storm

  • As clean-up began, king tides also started, which created ongoing erosion issues

Hurricane Isaias came barreling down on the small island in August of last year and made landfall as a Category 1 storm with winds up to 85 miles an hour. Many homeowners, including Glenda Browning, stayed on the island to ride out the storm – expecting a much weaker impact than what they received.

“We truly believed that we were OK, that it was going to be a little, tiny storm,” Browning said. “When I relook at these [pictures] I'm just so grateful that we were not hurt, and we were able to make a move.”

She and her husband owned the house on the farthest point of the East End of the island, leaving nothing to shelter it from the pounding wind and waves. As the ocean began to rise all around her and her cars floated away, she realized that she had made a mistake.

“By far, I know I am most fortunate, most, most fortunate in so many ways, but to go through that to learn that was a little bit of a hard lesson,” Browning said. “I hope that it never happens to anyone else.”

Browning said hurricanes are a risk you willingly take when living on the beach – it's the price for paradise, if you will – but the morning after Isaias was her third year in a row walking out her front door to inspect damage and start clean-up.

But it would also be her last on Ocean Isle. Recovery began in earnest as king tides – the highest high tides possible – came rolling into the island. Now, she was fighting to hold her home in place while still struggling to rebuild it, until she finally realized the battle was too much to fight.

“We're watching the king tides start rolling in, and I could see the worry, and that's when I knew,” Browning said.

Her dream has always been to have a beach house, but that dream was rapidly turning into a nightmare. She and her husband made the tough decision to cut their losses before a new season came around, but others are determined to stay in paradise.

“If the big one, the 5 or 6 Category ever hit, it's possible that island could take a devastating blow, but that was always understood and that's a gamble that everybody willingly takes,” Browning said.

Mayor Debbie Smith of Ocean Isle said everyone is crossing their fingers that they don't receive a direct hit this year and in the meantime, they're doing everything they can to be prepared for yet another hurricane season.

“I don't think anybody can ever say they're ready for hurricane season,” Smith said. “We are prepared, and we review our plans every year, update what we have learned the hard way, but none of us ever know what Mother Nature is going to do.”