LUMBERTON, N.C. (WFMY) -- The raging river, the flooded roads, and the homes and cars underwater have a familiar feel in Lumberton, North Carolina.
“It looks like Matthew all over again,” Lumberton native Kenny Mears said. "I feel the wind was worse this time than Matthew."
Many people in Lumberton are still recovering from the hurricane two years earlier, like Florence Thomas, who said her son had to carry her on his back out of her house the last time there was a flood like this.
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“It was up to the door, fixing to roll in and I was standing at the front door," she said. "I said, ‘God, please don’t let it come in my house.’”
Now people like Florence, 85, are reliving that experience as the road to her home is covered in floodwater by the storm that unfortunately shares her name, something that she said has been joked about by townspeople, an attempt at levity during a stressful time.
"I’ve been coming by to see if the water was gone every day,” Florence said. She believes it will be several more days before she will be able to make it home.
“We’re so used to seeing it happen to other people on the news, and here I am right in the middle of it,” Jackie Hill of Lumberton said.
Amidst the disaster are rays of happiness. Jackie said her family was forced to evacuate from their home on Saturday, wading out of their home as the floodwater started to rise. She could not find any shelters to take in her pets and had to leave them at her house, keeping them on the second floor and leaving them with plenty of food and water. But as the days passed and there still was no sign that she would be able to make it home, she decided to take action.
"We didn’t want to leave them," she said. "I didn't know how to feel about that, but I knew we did the best that we could, but I knew we were going to make a way to come and get them.”
Tuesday afternoon, a rescue crew from the Lumberton Fire Department came to her aid, using a boat to reach her home and rescuing her two dogs and pet guinea pig, bringing them safely to dry land.
The road to recovery is long - they know that much from their experience two years ago - but if Hurricane Matthew taught the people of Lumberton anything, it's that they know they can make it.
“We’ll make it," Mears said. "We pulled through once before and we’ll pull through this one.”
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