Why people stay: in North Carolina it's about roots, memory and family
Outside the nursing home, the statue of a praying angel was turned over on its back so that it wouldn’t fly through a window. Down the street at the restaurant, the bartender said trivia night was canceled, and the tough-guy firefighter who raced to New York on 9/11 had a beer and told a stranger about his worries.
Across from the bar, the hardware store owner who lost three family members 64 years ago in a hurricane here in Shallotte, North Carolina, stared out the window and talked about science and the past.
“Just depends on where you’re standing, whether it’s a tragedy or a lesson,” Bobby Williamson said.
As the forecast for Hurricane Florence made a mean shift toward North Carolina’s Brunswick county on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, people here shifted, too. Some canceled hurricane party plans. Others made them. Some who on Tuesday swore they wouldn’t board up windows – Williamson included – had plywood in the beds of their trucks by
