Wilmington and the Cape Fear: what Florence and its neighbors left on the record

Florence came ashore at Wrightsville Beach

The National Hurricane Center's report on Florence puts Florence ashore near Wrightsville Beach on the morning of September 14, 2018 (1115 UTC), with 80-knot winds and a forward crawl of about 5 knots. That slow motion is the story. Rainbands trained over the same ground from Wilmington to Elizabethtown and produced a narrow swath of rainfall totals above 30 inches.

The same report lists what that did locally:

• New Hanover. The Cape Fear River put more than two feet of water into parts of downtown Wilmington, and the county was cut off for several days while I-40 and U.S. 17, 74, 76 and 421 were closed. Wind left many homes and businesses with damage to roofs, garage doors and siding, and cut power to more than 90 percent of the county.
• Pender. NHC calls it the worst flooding in local history, with 3,882 flood-damaged structures, 96 of them destroyed. On Topsail Island many homes lost roofing and siding.
• Brunswick. Flash flooding closed parts of U.S. 17 and NC 87, falling trees damaged homes and churches in Southport, and more than 80 percent of the county lost power.

FEMA's major disaster declaration for Florence, DR-4393, covers all three counties.

Before and after Florence

• Floyd, 1999. Came ashore near Cape Fear as a category 2 hurricane with winds near 90 knots, according to NHC.
• Isaias, 2020. Made its final landfall near Ocean Isle Beach at 0310 UTC on August 4 with 80-knot winds. NHC's report puts the highest inundation on the Brunswick County shore between Cape Fear and the South Carolina line, around 6 feet above ground, with 2 to 4 feet up the Cape Fear River into Wilmington. FEMA followed with DR-4568.
• Bald Head Island, August 3, 2020. NOAA's Storm Events Database describes a strong waterspout that moved onshore as an EF2 tornado, with roof loss and blown-in windows on homes along its path.

The storms that are not hurricanes

Tropical systems get the headlines, but the county records also carry a steady run of thunderstorms and tornadoes. Counts below are events recorded in NOAA's Storm Events Database for that window.

Brunswick's list includes its most serious event of the decade: the EF3 tornado of February 15, 2021 that began near Old Georgetown Road SW, blew much of a roof off a metal building on Highway 904, and is recorded with three deaths and ten injuries. In New Hanover, the database's strongest wind entry since 2000 is a 2003 microburst that a National Weather Service survey estimated at 100 mph gusts, damaging nearly 100 homes in the Brittany Woods subdivision.

Local groups and lookups before you hire

• Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association. The association says it was chartered in 1965 and represents more than 1,800 members from over 850 companies, and it runs a public member directory and a Locate a Pro page.
• State license. Run any company through the NC Licensing Board for General Contractors search; it accepts a city, so you can search Wilmington, Leland or Southport directly. The license requirement applies to projects of $40,000 or more, per the board.
• Paperwork. The check-a-contractor guide covers insurance certificates, written contracts, permits and lien releases.

The directory keeps county pages for New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender, plus a city page for roofers in Wilmington. If you are pricing a job, see its roof replacement cost page for Wilmington.

Roofers listed in Wilmington, Leland, Southport and Hampstead are shown here.

Frequently asked questions

Which Cape Fear counties were in the Florence disaster declaration?

FEMA's DR-4393 declaration includes New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender, along with Carteret, Dare, Hyde and Onslow among the coastal counties covered on this site.

Does Wilmington get tornadoes as well as hurricanes?

Yes. NOAA's Storm Events Database records 16 tornado events in New Hanover, 21 in Brunswick and 17 in Pender from 2016 through 2025, including an EF3 in Brunswick County in 2021.

Is there a local list of builders and remodelers?

The Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association publishes a member directory. Check any name you find there against the state license search as well.