Coastal Carolina after Hurricane Florence

Greetings!

As most of you are aware, it’s been an eventful month here at the Carolina Coast with the landfall of Hurricane Florence. Many of you have reached out with questions and concerns, as well as a strong desire to assist, so we wanted to take a moment to update everyone, in an effort to ensure we get you the most up to date information. Obviously, there’s been a significant amount of media coverage surrounding the storm, some accurate and some not so accurate. It is our desire to relay real information and real stories, in order to keep you best informed.

Hurricane Florence was a powerful storm that impacted the coastal Carolinas significantly. While the winds were downgraded from initial projections, rain amounts were staggering. Many people have been displaced from their homes due to water damage, most specifically in our inland counties and rural areas along rivers. Recovery efforts continue across several counties for some, and it will remain that way for quite some time. Our hearts go out to all of these individual and families so severely affected. In spite of this, there is always positivity to embrace. Often headlines focus on the total devastation during and shortly after the storm, but not on the rebuilding and humanity that takes place for weeks and months after. If you have ever wanted to witness and live in an area where the entire community comes together for the good of each other, this is where you want to be. 

The real story on Hurricane Florence is that it strengthened and bonded southeastern North Carolina. Neighbors helping neighbors, neighbors helping strangers and communities pulling together to get everyone back on their feet. Almost immediately, groups were mobilized to assist those in need with hot meals, warm beds, means of transportation, debris clean up, roof patching – the list goes on and on! It has been inspiring, uplifting and humbling all at the same time. We are beyond proud to call this our home, and have heard from countless others that have echoed the same sentiments.  We are all in this together for our beloved area. We are “Carolina Strong”.

Another main point to emphasize, is that while we remain focused and dedicated to relief and recovery efforts, a large majority of folks weathered Florence with little to no issues at all in our area. Throughout this newsletter you will see testimonials of real homeowners and their experience during and after the storm. Feel free to reach out to us in reference to specific communities. We will also address elevations levels for many of our popular and desired communities. 

There is still more work to be done, but amazing progress is underway. Wilmington is back to bustling, and Fall is a beautiful time to visit! If you so desire, there are still many ways to assist and donate. 

Thank you for taking the time to catch up with us. The real estate market has remained steady in spite of the storm, and we have been busy! We are ready to assist you in any way that we can. Storms are a part of the fabric of living at the coast, but the Wilmington area will always remain one of the most desired in the country! 

We hope to see you soon in the warm salt air.

Warm Wishes

Brian Schrader

Coastline NC Real Estate Team
910-297-2475
coastlinenc@gmail.com

Let’s talk about Elevations and Flood Zones

There’s been a lot of chatter about this in recent weeks. In the greater Wilmington area there are 3 different types of flood zones.  They are classified as zones X, AE, and VE.  Zone X are the areas that are not in flood zones, therefore the banks do not require homeowners to have flood insurance on the property.  The banks will require homeowners to have flood insurance in both zones AE and VE.  The flood insurance rates in the AE flood zone are based off of elevation. 
In AE and VE, the homeowner must have an elevation certificate done by a professional surveyor. The insurance companies then base the rate off of that certificate, which will contain each individual flood elevation. Homeowners in a VE zone, which are mostly beachfront homes and homes along the ICWW, will have to get the same elevation certificate , however they are classified in an area which is high risk for both wind AND flood. Most of the homes in this areas will have been built up on pilings.  There are a lot more details to this, along with individual situations  and circumstances. This is why you need an experienced agent to help guild you through this process.  It is also very import to have an insurance agent that understands our area as well.

Here are just a few elevations(feet above sea level) in some off our areas planned communities.


You need a  Buyers Agent. Here's why you should use Coastline for your home purchase:

Coastline agents understand the necessity of using an experienced and skilled realtor. In addition, we are buyers agents. Why is this important?  Well, for many reasons. First off, we are local and can share knowledge and information  that can’t be found on national brand websites such as Zillow and Trulia. As well, having a buyers agent doesn’t cost you a dime, and this extra knowledge is invaluable when it comes to making one of the biggest decisions of your life. We can also assist and guide you through the process when it comes to finding home inspectors, closing attorneys, mortgage companies, insurance agents, etc. Call us today, there’s no reason not to!

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Testimonials from property owners

** The following are stories shared with us after Florence.  We value each and every one of our property owners, and appreciate their honest feedback.

Masonboro Area of Wilmington
Elevation 17-22

"We were happy that we had little damage to our home.  Our gutters are a little misshapen and pieces of our fence fell on three sides which we were able to prop back up.  We are going for a shutter free look now as most of our shutters were no longer attached to our house =).  On return to our home we had lots of clean up but not too much to repair."

 

 

Wilmington Area
Elevation 9-55

"Thank you for reaching out to us.  Coastline Real Estate continues to be a very competent and caring company to work with.  We were blessed.  We had no damage to our home other then a shutter that came off.  It was not damaged and is now back in place.  We had no large trees come down and no flooding.  We did have smaller branches and lots of leaves come off the big oaks and pine trees in our yard.  This was an easy clean-up and the city & county are picking up all the debris from curbside at no charge to the homeowner. "

Winding River
Elevation 16-32

'Fortunately, our property in Winding River was spared....no flooding, no damage. We were not there to experience it firsthand but did receive Nextdoor updates from our neighbors across the street. Winding River is a great community with wonderful people."

Brunswick Forest 
Elevation 25-50

"We live in Brunswick Forest, and I have to say it took a big hit.  So many tress are down and many many homes have lost several shingles off their roofs.  Some homes are in need of a new roof and others need to replace siding they lost during the Hurricane.  Fortunately we came out of the storm great.  We did not sustain any damage to our home.  We do back up to a forest so therefore the wind didn’t hit our roof as much as others.  Back in the wood we did loose 2 huge pine tress.  One snapped in half and other snapped and is still hanging there. We are grateful for the trees that didn’t snap and hit our home.  With all the rain, we were lucky again that there wasn’t any water damage.  I know some homes the water was trickling through their can lights.  All in all our home survived a Hurricane Category 1, and we stayed!!  For those who left it was a challenge returning to their homes."

Mallory Creek Plantation
Elevation 22-26

"Our house at Mallory Creek did fine and we are so thankful. We did not experience any structural damage or flooding. We are having some electrical issues in our garage and having an electrician coming at the end of this week to assess the issue - it may or may not be storm related. I was surprised how quickly Brunswick Electric had our power restored. A few of our close neighbors lost some small trees in their yard but I have not seen any significant damage in our side of the neighborhood. Thanks!"

Inlet Watch
Elevation 9 (Wilmington Marina Community)

"Thanks for checking in on us.  As you know we back up directly to the marina.  We did have water come up into out yard.  Over all very minimal damage to our community considering we right across the Carolina Beach inlet.  We lost power for 3 days."

Park Ave - Center Wilmington
Elevation 29-33
 

"We live in an older neighborhood in Wilmington where there are beautiful, mature live oaks that drape our streets.  We did unfortunately lose quite a few of these trees, but our neighborhood and homes stood strong.  We did not have any flooding and power returned to our homes within the week.  Now our neighborhood has begun the clean-up process (which is mostly cosmetic) and the sidewalks are starting to be filled with walkers, runners and bikers again.  We’re not quite back to normal yet as so many in our area were affected, but Wilmington is strong.  It will rebuild and be more beautiful than ever."

Magnolia Greens Leland
Elevation 20-35

"Minor stuff on the house trees down, removed pine, shingles.. I have a temporary fix on the roof.  No biggie. Clean up almost done.  Not enough to meet the deductible so I'm fortunate."

Woodlake Community -  Wilmington
Elevation 10-12 feet 

"Thanks for reaching out. Glad you and your family fared well through the storm.  Eric and I moved into the woodlake community a little over 4 years ago with your assistance. Our home didn’t have any damage or flooding to its structure. We had put ply wood on the main windows in the front, the large living room window, and half the slider door as precaution.  Like the rest of Wilmington we lost power shortly before the eye of the storm was over our home. Power was restored Sunday evening, but as my mom is in Leland she had power back on Saturday afternoon so we had already packed and gone there for a couple of nights.  When the power restored we had some power surge damage sensors to in our hvac and sprinkler system. We’ve had the hvac repaired but we haven’t gotten around to the sprinkler yet. Other than that no real storm damage (unless you count the mailbox losing its ornate decoration which all in all isn’t important)."

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