Southport reflects on Hurricane Isaias five years later

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Sunday marks the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Isaias, a category one hurricane that pummeled the Carolinas.  

It had initially weakened to a tropical storm when hitting the Bahamas, but it intensified back into a hurricane as it approached the Cape Fear coastline eventually causing widespread damage to some towns and cities. 

“It does seem like that it just happened last week,” Chief Drew said.  

City of Southport Fire Chief Charles Drew served as the incident commander during Hurricane Isaias. Which was a category one hurricane that made landfall near ocean isle beach on August 3rd, 2020. 

Sand dunes in Oak Island were washed onto streets up to three blocks inland.  

Isaias spawned 6 confirmed tornadoes, one of which traveled from bald head island to Southport.  

The Southport Marina faced significant damage as well as waterfront shops and restaurants.  

“Southport was resilient after the storm and they got things back together, but it took us some time to get our infrastructure back up and running because these storms can be deadly and they can be dangerous,” Chief Drew said. 

During an already challenging year, neighbors stepped up to help each other. 

“It strengthened our city, it strengthened our community as a whole, Isaias taught us some lessons of making sure that our neighbors are okay,” Chief Drew recalled. 

Fishy Fishy Cafe front of house manager Don Lilly remembers several feet of water on the inside of the building and a lot of clean up causing the restaurant to be closed for 10 days. 

“When we walked in the door the first day, we would have never thought we would’ve been back open in 10 days. Mainly because it was pretty clear really early on that all the equipment was going to have to be replaced,” Lilly remembered. 

Lilly says the biggest impact was on the staff.   

“Because our staff really counts on this time of the year this is the busiest time of the year, the money-making time of the year. So, when they can’t roll in income for multiple multiple multiple days, it really hurts,” Lilly shared. 

Brunswick county reported 53,000 customers without power.  

New Hanover County had 85,000 without power and Pender County officials reported more than 27,000 outages.