One year since Florence hit, how is Boiling Spring Lakes still recovering?

BOILING SPRING LAKES, NC (WWAY) — It’s been one year since Hurricane Florence devastated southeastern North Carolina.

“The lakes are part of the city. I mean it’s called Boiling Spring Lakes,” resident Rob Warner said. “I really hope that they get working on the dam.”

Some things look just the way Hurricane Florence left them. One year ago, Florence ripped through Boiling Spring Lakes leaving them high and dry. The dam on the big lake broke, draining the lake.

“It’s part of property values too,” Warner said. “And without the lakes, the property values don’t seem to be as much.”

Warner says he used to have a lake front view at his coffee shop, but that view has changed.

“It looks kind of like a little African Savanna I guess,” Warner said.

Slowly but surely City Manager Jeff Repp assures people that things are being put back together. All in all, he says the city took on around $18 million worth of damage.

“Up to this point, all of our non-dam related projects have been completed,” Repp said. “The dams have always been treated as a separate project, so we are in the process of engineering on those right now.”

Repp says the dams have been around since the 1960s. Now, he says they will be rebuilt stronger than before.

“As a result of dam safety now being in creation, we now have to bring them back to today’s standards,” Repp said. ‘So two of the dams which were previously exempt are now classified as high hazard. ”

Repp says over the next two years, the dams will undergo repairs. By the end of 2021, he hopes everything will be back up and running.

As for Warner, he’s positive that they’ll get there.

“If anything, after the storm, the community kind of pulled together,” Warner said. “I think for the most part, we’re getting back to normal.”

Repp says repairs should end up being fully funded with the help of FEMA and the state.