One Month, Two Hurricanes. Life In A Shelter Is The New Norm For Hundreds In NC.
By ELIZABETH BAIER • OCT 15, 2018

Tammy Short and her family moved to Wilmington from Gastonia three weeks before Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina. She had landed a job at a tourist shop; her 25-year-old son had found work at a local diner. They were living at the Carolina Beach Campground while they figured out their next steps in their new city.

Hurricane Florence wiped all that away.

"At the campground, we lost our tents, we lost all our personal clothes, everything was just ruined," said Short who, along with her son, was laid off from her new job after the storm. "We have been at the shelter since September 16."

Short, her husband, their two adult children, and five-year-old granddaughter found a temporary roof over their heads with the Red Cross, moving to three different shelters in the Wilmington area in the last month. They’re currently among the 55 residents living at the Red Cross shelter inside the Harbor United Methodist Church, about eight miles north of the campgroup they had started to call home.

“Never in my life have I seen something this bad,” Short said. “Just seeing all these families and kids being misplaced, it’s heartbreaking. You wouldn’t think you could lose so much.”