Three Towns / Three Rivers

Recovering from a 500-year flood is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires deep wells of grit, determination and faith, plus lots of money. The people of Fair Bluff, Princeville, and Seven Springs wanted a quick comeback after the historic floods of Hurricane Matthew in 2016, but that’s not how disaster recovery works.

These North Carolina communities had barely begun to make measurable progress when, in 2018, Mother Nature struck again. Torrential rains following Hurricane Florence again flooded two of the three towns.

‘Three Towns / Three Rivers’ is a story of place, perseverance, and hope. It’s the story of communities and people who refuse to give up, even when the way forward seems impossible.

The challenges faced by Fair Bluff, Princeville, and Seven Springs could be confronting your town at any time. Natural disasters come in many forms, but the results are universal – destruction, disbelief, and an agonizingly slow recovery process.

In this era of climate change and increasingly violent weather, recovery experts preach that rebuilding with resilience is essential to surviving the next natural disaster.

It’s coming, they say. The only question is when.