Episode 10: Season Finale: Hurricane Season in Wilmington, NC – Should You Be Worried?

Hurricanes are one of the first things people ask about when they're thinking about moving to Wilmington, North Carolina. So instead of giving you a weather report, I'm giving you something better—my perspective.

I've lived in the Wilmington area my entire life, and I've experienced everything from tropical storms to major hurricanes like Fran and Florence. In this episode, I share what it was really like living through those storms, what I've learned over the years, and why respecting hurricane season is important without letting it scare you away from coastal living.

In the season finaly of Port City Living, We'll talk about:

• My personal memories of Hurricane Fran (1996) and Hurricane Florence (2018)
• Why preparation matters more than panic
• Flood insurance and why it's worth considering—even if you're not in a designated flood zone
• What hurricane season is actually like for those of us who call the North Carolina coast home
• Why I still believe Wilmington is one of the best places to live

If you've ever wondered what it's really like to live on the coast during hurricane season, this episode is for you.

Helpful Resources & Hurricane Information

🌀 National Hurricane Center (Current storms, forecasts & preparedness)
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

🌦️ National Weather Service – Wilmington, NC
https://www.weather.gov/ilm/

📊 Top 20 Strongest Storms in Wilmington History
https://www.weather.gov/ilm/Top_20_Storms

A few interesting facts:
• Hurricane Fran made landfall near Cape Fear on September 5, 1996, producing wind gusts over 100 mph in parts of southeastern North Carolina.

• Hurricane Floyd (1999) remains the strongest storm to directly impact Wilmington based on barometric pressure and produced catastrophic inland flooding across eastern North Carolina.

• Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach on September 14, 2018, becoming the wettest weather event in Wilmington's recorded history with 23.02 inches of rain measured at Wilmington International Airport.

Thanks for listening to Port City Living! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's thinking about making Wilmington home.

There's a place in Wilmington you've almost certainly walked, jogged, or paddled around — and most people have no idea what they're really standing on.

Before it became one of the most beloved green spaces in the city, it was a rice plantation worked by enslaved people. Over the years it's been a millpond, an amusement park, a small-town zoo, and the backdrop for one very wild night involving a runaway circus elephant. And that scenic five-mile road you love so much? It was built by men in chains during the Great Depression.

In this episode, I dig into the layered, unfiltered history of Greenfield Lake — the beauty of it and the weight of it — and why this old millpond just might be the reason Wilmington still has a soul.

It started with a mediocre hotdog at a brand new Sheetz and a gas station literally across the street — and it got me thinking. Wilmington already has well over 130 gas stations across New Hanover County alone, from the big national chains to the mom and pop stores that have been part of this community for decades. And yet somehow, more keep coming. In this episode I dig into exactly what is being built right now across this city, why our explosive population growth has made us a prime target for billion dollar convenience store chains, the surprising truth about how little money these companies actually make on gas, why prices differ from one station to the next and whether that should change, what happens to the little guy when corporate money moves in, and the unexpected reason why electric vehicles are actually accelerating the gas station boom rather than slowing it down.

Check out my youtube channel and other fun stuff here: https://linktr.ee/portcitylivingnc