FAIR BLUFF, N.C. — The impacts of natural disasters are long-lasting in some places across North Carolina.
What You Need To Know
The Town of Fair Bluff has been thrashed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018
Almost every business has been destroyed or shutdown because of the severe weather
Fair Bluff was awarded a $4.8 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce in 2020
Revitalization project is in the works for new town retail space
And spots, like Fair Bluff, know the destruction a hurricane can bring all too well. Hurricane Matthew hit in 2016, and then the small town was slammed by Hurricane Florence in 2018.
If you drive through the town, you will notice how much it is dying to find economic life. Main Street in Fair Bluff looks like a time capsule. Empty storefronts and dusty windows are fading memories of the past before two hurricanes hit.
Mayor Billy Hammond can tell you that. The mayor pressed his hands around his face like a pair of binoculars as he leaned against the glass of a store damaged during Hurricane Matthew.
“In this business here used to be one of the oldest soda fountains in North Carolina,” the mayor said as he described what the inside of the business looked like before all its goods were strewn everywhere. “It was called Elton Drugs.”
This literal walk down memory lane transports him back in time to one morning in 2016 after Hurricane Matthew made landfall.
“I got up and came down here then watched the water rise,” the mayor said.
Non-stop rain for an extended period of days made the usually peaceful Lumber River flood the town.
The mayor said even when flooding stopped, many homes and businesses remained under water for two weeks.
The town has never economically recovered, partially because Florence hit just two years later.
“Like I say, when it happened it was devastating,” Hammond said.
Residential areas also suffered from the floodwaters. Town planner Al Leonard said at least 75 homes were damaged by severe flooding.
“On the commercial side, what we say is just about every downtown business in Fair Bluff did not come back except for the U.S. Post office,” Leonard said.
Six million dollars in state and federal funding will help. Leonard said the town operates on a yearly budget of close to $1.3 million.
Through a U.S. Department of Commerce grant, the town will develop a new retail space on higher ground, what Leonard says they plan to dub "Uptown."
The goal is to build a structure large enough to fit eight retailers.
“You have to feel like that there will be businesses that will want to come here in the future and start small businesses in Fair Bluff,” Leonard said.
But before anything can be rebuilt, every building on Main Street will need to be demolished.
“I’ve been here since ‘59, and it feels like home. It’s devastating. It’s not like home was before when you could come to town and get anything,” the mayor said.
This new project is being built across from the United Methodist Church between Roger and Bardin Streets.
Hammond said the revitalization project will take between 18-24 months to complete. None of the properties on Main Street will ever make a real comeback because of the destruction. However, Hammond said those natural disasters don’t have to be the death of their small town, where 750 people still reside.