Sept. 13--After Hurricane Matthew rolled through the Cape Fear region nearly two years ago, Craven Gaddy's north Fayetteville home was without power for six days.
He won't be going through that again as a result of Hurricane Florence.
"I'm waiting for this storm to come by, and when my lights go out, I'm going to have something to crank it right back up," Gaddy said.
Gaddy was at Lowe's on Skibo Road on Thursday morning purchasing a much-coveted hurricane prep item: a generator. He'd tried to purchase one earlier in the week only to discover many stores were sold out.
"Everybody had run out," Gaddy said. "But I got a call this morning that Lowe's had some."
Gaddy was one of several people out picking up last-minute items before Fayetteville faces the full effects of Florence, which was a Category 2 storm bearing down on the Carolina coast as of Thursday morning.
Lowe's was bustling with people picking up generators, plywood and propane.
Aaron Tupper was purchasing a gas grill to take to his son's house in Spring Lake. Tupper drove from Connecticut to help his sons, ages 21 and 18, ride out the storm.
"Kids," Tupper said. "They were unprepared. They don't know. They've never been through anything like this before."
Tupper brought a stock of hurricane supplies with him, including propane, but arrived to discover that neither of his sons had a grill. After buying one at Lowe's, he was on his way elsewhere to track down paper plates.
"I'm going to ride it out with them," said Tupper, who is hoping to head back to Connecticut on Sunday.
Jerrell Bethea and Shaquita Munn also were in from out of town, but the couple rode to Fayetteville from St. Pauls with their two children on Thursday in search of charcoal.
"Fayetteville was the only place where we could come to get some," Bethea said. "I checked all of our Walmarts."
Their search led them to Food Lion in Westwood Shopping Center, where Darlene Newton was wrapping up her shopping.
She'd purchased some groceries, having already finished all her hurricane prep shopping Sunday. But she had one more stop on her list.
"I'm going to Sam's to purchase a shelf," Newton said. "We have some boxes of books that we need to get off the floor."
A steady stream of shoppers exited the Sam's Club a little before lunchtime Thursday, their carts full of snacks, toilet paper and pet supplies.
For Eric and Danae Brinkman, that included a climbing tower for cats, as well as boxes of snacks, a jug of milk and a carton of trash bags.
"I joked that I'll be standing on this to get above the water," Eric said of the tower.
"We've got a couple of cats that have to come in that aren't used to it, so we're going to get them a castle," Danae said.
The couple own The Morning Jump Coffee Company in Spring Lake, and plan to be at the shop through the storm.
"We're going to keep it open as long as we can," Eric Brinkman said. "During Matthew, we gave out coffee to some of the relief crews that came in from New York, and we're hoping we'll be able to do that again."
Staff writer Jaclyn Shambaugh can be reached at [email protected] or 910-609-0651.