Hurricane Bonnie Strikes Coast.
Most of the calls we've had started, "What happened with the hurricane?"  Answer: this is our third, Bertha and Fran in 96 and Bonnie in 98. Other than a lot of twigs, pine cones and trash that take a couple of days to clean up, no damage at all. We were in California when it hit, and arrived home a couple of days later.  Our good neighbors with our keys had  "prepped" our house for us.
Our geographic position is such that unless we get very unlucky, it's hard to see how we can have any future problems.  Our brick house sits at least 12 to 15 feet above high tide level; we're almost 2 miles from the beach, where a surge would hit first, so it would take 20 feet or more at high tide (only 2x a day) to even be a threat.  There is no recorded history of a surge that high in this area.
The community layout helps greatly with regard to wind damage, other than for those homes on the west bank of the Lockwood Folly River.  Happily we are on the leeward side of the damaging NE winds with a half mile or so of trees and other houses protecting us from full wind force.
Brunswick County took a bigger hit this time.   Bonnie "stalled" directly over the county for over 14 hours, another historical first   Fran, Bertha, Hugo (early 1990s) and Hazel (1950s) lasted for no more than 3 to 4 hours of high intensity winds as they moved through.  Bonnie dropped as much as 20 inches of rain, which weakened the roots of many of the larger, older, trees.  Where these trees were exposed to direct high wind pressure, they came up from the roots instead of breaking halfway down the trunk, which the larger trees normally do.  Almost all residential and auto damage came from these bigger trees.  The wind also had a lot more time to work on wind catchers like gas station covers and cheaper metal roofs.
More Pictures: (left) THE LOCAL BANK in Shallotte took a hit losing part of its roof, as did our hospital, nearer to our house. (below left)  BAPTIST CHURCH, Shallotte, had steeple blown off.   
(below)  CITGO GAS STATION,  where we fill up, damaged all new pumps and roof, just finished a week before the hurricane hit. 

THE DIXIE ROSE, A shrimp boat docked at Varnumtown, a small fishing village next to us, less than a mile from us as the crow flies, was one of the casualties.  All the other boats found safe haven  further up the Lockwood Folly

HOLDEN BEACH, the barrier island that protects us, suffered practically no damage to its sand dune, which faces South, since the strongest winds in a hurricane push water from the NE.  But houses lost some shingles and porches

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