October 3, 2018 — “We may be bruised, but we are not broken.”
These words were posted on Facebook by staff at R.E. Mayo Seafood shortly after Hurricane Florence pounded coastal North Carolina. Owned by Birdie and Carroll Potter, the business is located on the Intracoastal Waterway in Hobucken, N.C., and has long been known as the hub for locally caught fish, crabs, scallops and shrimp.
A bit further down the coast in Oriental, Endurance Seafood took a devastating hit, putting the company out of business.
“We are wiped out. No dock, no cooler, no freezer, no ice – Florence took it all. This storm was bad, it actually beat my walk-in cooler and freezer into pieces,” said owner Keith Bruno. Despite the destruction, he is optimistic.
“The important part is we are all safe,” said Bruno. “The rest — not so good.”
“You’ve got to move forward, you’ve got to keep going… because that’s what we do. We every once in a while have to pay a price to live so close to beauty. There is no doubt we’ll be back and stronger than ever. We will live up to our name and then some.”
Pamlico County fishermen were hit the hardest, according to Glenn Skinner, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association.
“Some fish packing operations in Oriental and Vandemere were completely destroyed. It’s going to be a real hard winter for the industry,” said Skinner.
“We are kind of like farmers, we have a fall crop,” he explained. “The fall fisheries are big. We use that money and put it away for the winter time. The fisheries are going to be gone after this strong blow for several days. It will be next spring before we can make that up.”
Jerry Schill, government affairs liaison for NCFA, says these types of storms have a big impact on the mental health of fishermen and other working class North Carolinians.
“If these guys don’t catch anything, they get nothing. It doesn’t matter how hard they work. That’s a lot of stress on a family,” said Schill.