WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C. — Although the beach was swarming with people on Sunday, relatively few families headed down to the water on Monday, as clouds and wind began to roll in.
Some visitors say, they prefer it like this: fewer people, overcast skies, and big waves. Steven Keller spent the morning strolling on the beach before his evening flight home.
"We’ve been here since Friday," he told WFMY News 2, "The reason it’s been my favorite day is because everyone has left. The hotel that we’re staying at already took in all the outside furniture. There’s nobody really here but us."
Sam Crawley and his family are visiting from Richmond. They got down to the beach early enough to enjoy a full day of fun - before heading back to the house to hunker down.
"It's nice down here! Sun isn’t burning down on you. It’s cool. Nice breeze. You got to be careful, can’t go as far out in the ocean, we keep the kids knee-deep - but the waves are coming in enough for them to have a good time even there," he said.
Locals say they aren't preparing for this storm like they would for past storms. Over at Jimmy's at Red Dogs - a bar in the middle of the town - owner Jimmy Gilleece says, they've been closed for 137 days due to coronavirus restrictions.
"It’s been rough on us. Luckily we are on a busy strip and we're able to sell merchandise and to-go beers, but it’s definitely hit us hard," he said.
"We’ve been through a lot of hurricanes and tropical storms so we kind of know what to do and know what to expect. This one, I don’t think we are going to be getting hit too hard with the wind - but the flooding is always a concern."
Gilleece says the flooding primarily comes from the sound - not the beach. He isn't boarding up his windows or putting out sandbags tonight.
"We’ve boarded up and done all that in the past for bigger ones and the smaller ones. You know, you can’t stop the flooding and that’s what we’re concerned about."
Another constant concern in these types of storms: losing power.
Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks says they've got hundreds of crews on standby to respond to possible outages.
"We are expecting some significant outages across the region. Really, that is going to depend on the final track at the storm," he said, "Certainly concentrated in eastern North Carolina, I-95 East is the hardest zone but, - we want to warn people don’t become lulled and think that in the Triangle or the Triad you might not see some effects from the storm."
