‘Terrifying and surreal’: Antique shop owner describes hurricane flood waters sweeping pieces away

An antique shop owner in Banner Elk, North Carolina spoke to Fox News about the devastation that Hurricane Helene inflicted on her town, describing how the floodwaters swept her inventory down the road.

Olivia Daly owns an antique shop in Banner Elk that she says lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory due to Hurricane Helene and despite salvaging what she can, will have to restock much of what they carried. 

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“It’s truly like a fight or flight response. You have to decide last minute, you know, what you’re going to do. We were in my apartment over here and the water started coming up at a rapid speed, so fast that you couldn’t even see the water when you looked at it. I had my two-year-old daughter with me and I just grabbed her and we ran down to 828 Flies shop which is two doors down from us because they’re on higher ground. And we just watched from the window and the whole road was taken out by the water and you could just see our pieces just floating on by. It was terrifying and surreal really. 

Hurricane Helene is responsible for at least 232 deaths across seven states, Fox Weather has confirmed, with North Carolina receiving the brunt of the damage. Damage estimates are expected to exceed $50 billion dollars, with approximately 95 percent of it being uninsured property.

“It’s a long road ahead but we’re taking it day-by-day and the recovery process is happening as you can see behind us and we’re trying to salvage as much as we can,” Daly said. “

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“Unfortunately, these are such unique pieces that we’re going to have to go back and source from England and it’s going to take a while to rebuild our collection.”

Recovery efforts continue in North Carolina as FEMA has recently opened four more disaster recovery centers in the state, according to Fox Carolina.  FEMA has also resumed door-to-door visits in the state after the were temporarily paused due to concerns about personnel safety.