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t is easier to count the number of homes that did not flood in Hurricane Irene than to count those that did in Hobucken and Lowland.

The two communities on Goose Creek Island in the northeastern reaches of Pamlico County were swamped by the storm surge. It was higher than most expected which is to say, higher than 2003’s Hurricane Isabel.

On Hobucken Road, a horse grazes near what’s become a common sight in Hobucken, the innards of water-damaged homes, put out to the street.

There is not yet an official count, but reports from the area say that only between 8 and 20 homes avoided flooding. The County Planner’s office says there are approximately 239 households — and 483 people — in Hobucken and Lowland. By those back of the envelope calculations, 90% of the homes on Goose Creek Island flooded.

A torn tin roof on a building next to the ICW canal, the body of water that separates Goose Creek Island — Hobucken and Lowland — from the mainland of Pamlico County.

It could be said that flooding coming in to a home is a private disaster. The waters are an uninvited visitor who stays briefly, then leaves and on the surface leaves little trace. But the damage is done and soon, that private disaster becomes a most public one. Drive along the roads in Hobucken — as elsewhere in the water-edges parts of Pamlico County — and the evidence of flooding is everywhere. On the rights-of-way – where the front lawns meet the asphalt – heaps of rugs, insulation, timbers, and the water-damaged personal belongings were piling up.

First, photos from Hobucken, the first town you reach after crossing the bridge over the ICW near the Coast Guard station:

Lives and households laid bare. On Hobucken’s main road, the contents of a flooded home are put outside.

It is on Hobucken’s main street, just before Highway 304 gives way to a dirt road, that we met Irene. Not the hurricane — we were visiting almost a week after the storm swept through town — but rather irene Florian. The home she rents there had 22 inches of water in it — four feet in the garage — during the hurricane. Irene has lived in Hobucken since the late 1990’s and lived all of her life before that in Lowland.

Irene Florian says that in Hurricane Isabel, she had three inches of water in the Hobucken home she and her husband rent. Irene was far different. 22 inches in the living area. About four feet in the garage. And yes, she’s heard the comments about her name in the wake of the storm.

Visiting Irene on Friday was her long-time friend, Gray Popp. Fifty years ago, they married men who were first cousins. Gray came out to pack all of Irene’s clothing and linens in to fish boxes so she could wash and dry them at her home in Grantsboro. It was something important to do she said, “to keep it from a-molding and a-mildewing.”

The contents that got wet inside her home are laid out in Irene Florian’s yard. Among the items, a case or two of Mason jars holding figs that Irene had canned. Gray Popp recommends using it in a bundt cake or mixed in sour cream. Irene’s secret ingredient for figs: a packet of strawberry Jell-O.

While Gray visited and sorted through the clothes for Irene, the two talked. Gray rattled off three names..maybe four… and that was all the people she knew of who hadn’t flooded this time in Hobucken. Irene said that over in Lowland, it was a few relatives — mother, sisters, brother, who were among the lucky ones. But that, they said, was it. Most residents of the island were like Irene, facing water damage in their homes.

A few years ago, Gray had had enough of it herself. She’d lived on Goose Creek Island for more than 40 years – but moved away in 2006 after “FEMA bought me out.” She misses her friends, she says, but not the hurricane waters. Or mosquitoes, which are legendary on the island.

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Gray Popp and Irene Florian in front of the home Irene won’t be returning to. Irene, who has lived through hurricanes all her life in Lowland and Hobucken says it’s time to move away. But not for her son. “He wouldn’t leave for nothing. When you’re born and raised somewhere, you don’t want to move.”

Irene and her husband may be about to take a similar path out. By Friday after the hurricane, she said she was tired of going through her things, many of them laid out in the yard. She’s hoping that with the renter’s insurance settlement she can move away from flood-prone Goose Creek Island and “up the county” Reelsboro or Grantsboro.

Irene Florian, at a side door of her Hobucken home. Only the top drawers of a dresser remained dry, she says, as were the clothes hanging in the closet. But from 22 inches down, her possessions were soaked, her husband’s $150 Bible, ruined.

Irene Florian sporting what she called her “Hobucken Go-Go Boots” or “haulbacks”, so named for fishermen wearing them when they hauled fish back in to a boat. Her friend Gray Popp had stopped by Friday to gather Irene’s clothes to wash them.

New landmark — storm debris — not far from the Hobucken Bridge.

Further up the road, a visit to Lowland.

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L

owland may be the most aptly named town in all of North Carolina. Its seven letters spell out the community’s geography — and vulnerability.

Flood sale in Lowland. Also on offer, a sense of humor in a community where roughly 90% of the homes flooded.

In the front of the old Lowland post office the pile of debris was growing. It was a scene repeated at roadsides all over Lowland and Hobucken where an estimated 90% of households flooded.

Lowland is home to the Goose Creek Island Volunteer Fire Department. There, 53 inches of water were recorded inside the bays where trucks and equipment were stored. A few trucks were ruined. As for the equipment — jackets and such — they too may have been damaged beyond repair.

The Goose Creek Volunteer Fire Department which serves Lowland and Hobucken was swamped in Hurricane Irene. There were 53 inches of water in the fire station. It ruined two trucks. On the Friday after Irene, equipment was laid out in front so that the building could be cleaned and hosed down.

On a visit there Friday, the fire station was the hub of activity in town. Red Cross crews from Kentucky and Illinois were on hand, serving meals. Firefighters on loan from Leland and Sunset Harbor NC were pulling 72 hours shifts, being on call to answer any emergencies and fires on the island. They spent Friday hosing down and cleaning the fire station.

Normally, Lowland native Lynn Lewis works at the Register of Deeds office in Bayboro. After Irene, and under the county’s emergency management plan, she was working in Lowland at the fire station, helping coordinate assistance along with fellow county employee Loretta Sawyer. The work was hands-on. On Friday night they were bringing Red Cross meals to the firemen.

Lowland native Jackie Ireland, whose insurance company in Raleigh provides coverage to most fire departments in NC, was back at the fire department in Lowland on Friday. Those jackets on the ground behind him may not be usable again because they were covered not only by flood waters but by oils that spilled in the fire house building. Ireland says a few of the jackets will be sent off to be tested.

Musical debris outside Lowland Pentecostal Holiness Church. Up and down the roads of Lowland, debris was piling up. Rare were the buildings that didn’t have any discards out in front.

Alternate accommodation. A tent and mattress inside, set up in front of one home in Lowland. The water in the foreground is a drainage ditch and was filled because the water levels after Irene did not entirely recede.

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The hulk of an old wooden trawler that has long been grounded at the watery end of Kelly Watson Road in Lowland. “Hard TImes” appeared to have lost more of its sides in Irene.

Also at the end of Kelly Watson Road is Lowland Seafood. Even a week after the storm, the waters hadn’t fully receded. High — and not so high — water over the flat terrain is what gives the town its name.

Out at the end of Oyster Creek Road, a car with out of state plates rolled up the the edge of a pool of water at Oyster Creek Sea Food. A man yelled across the water, asked if the visitor was the insurance adjustor and if that was so, he’d come to fetch him with his truck…

..and moments later he had his truck in reverse to pick him up.

On Hwy 33/304, just over the Hobucken Bridge on to Goose Creek Island, a sign. Land that is high and dry may be wanted even more.

Shameless product placement for which TownDock receives no promotional consideration. Mosquito spray is a prerequisite for any visit to the island. And to much of the water-logged lands in the rest of Pamlico County as well.

Posted Wednesday September 7, 2011 by Melinda Penkava