WHITEVIILLE, N.C. (WECT) – As Debby moves out of North Carolina, Whiteville business owners say they’re breathing a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, we were nervous. Everybody was nervous,” Ronnie Faulk, owner of Men and Ladies Den Hairstyling Salon, said. “We dodged a bullet.”

Faulk is used to seeing major storm impacts. His salon has sat for 50 years on the corner of Madison and Frazier streets, which typically sees a significant amount of flooding each time there’s a large storm. As of Thursday night, Frazier street was one of a few streets the city had shut down.

“Started back with Florence, and we’ve had about four [instances of flooding] since then. It came up nearly four feet in Florence,” Faulk said.

Since then, he’s worked hard to make his shop “floodproof,” adding metal features to his walls and taking insulation out. Luckily this time, he says none of those features were needed.

“We’re hoping it’s done what it’s gonna do maybe,” Faulk said. “We were really lucky, really lucky.”

Not every business owner in Whiteville came into this storm with years of experience. Shannon Mims and his wife, Monique, recently purchased two buildings in town, hoping to open a craft cocktail lounge called “The Twisted Pecan” and an axe throwing bar called “Y’Vull Axes and Ales.” They’ve been in the thick of renovations this summer.

“We were worried about the equipment we’ve had brought in the last week or so,” Mims said. “We were worried about flooding. We’ve heard that downtown Whiteville can flood pretty fast. During Florence and Matthew, we were told about 24 to 30 inches of water came into some of the buildings.”

They lifted all their new purchases, such as furniture and dishware, off the ground and placed sandbags outside their door in preparation. They also lost a few days of work, thinking they wouldn’t be able to do the renovations needed in the storm conditions.

“We lost a day or two here with some guys coming in to do some work,” Mims said. “They were a little worried about traveling but no big deal. I think we’ll make up for it. I’ll be working all weekend.”

In the end, taking all that time off and lifting the new equipment didn’t turn out to be necessary. Both of their buildings came away from the storm without a scratch.

“Good Lord shined on us this time, and it looks like we’re going to be okay,” Mims said.

Faulk said his barber shop should be up and running by Friday morning. Mims said his two new businesses are still on track to open this September.

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