“We were behind one another praying to get out of that water.”

When Hurricane Floyd visited North Carolina almost exactly two years ago, it was the worst natural disaster in the state’s history. According to the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management and the Charlotte Observer, Floyd and its floods left fifty-one dead, sixty-six counties declared disaster areas, $6 billion in damage, 1.5 million people without power, 48,000 people in shelters, and hundreds of thousands of livestock dead. The storm flooded out twenty-four wastewater treatment plants, destroyed seven dams, and caused over $150 million in damage to state highways and $75 million to bridges and drainage systems. In all, Floyd forced police and the military to perform 1,400 swift-water evacuations.