A First Coast man is back home after helping those inundated by floodwater in North Carolina.
“The water, you just can’t defeat the water,” David Gill said.
Images from North Carolina’s battered coast show homes and roads underwater.
Gill, who lives in St. Johns County, returned from a trip to drop supplies in hard-hit areas including New Bern and Morehead City, North Carolina.
“Morehead City was way worse, I was almost breath-taken when we went into Morehead City,” he said.
Gill packed-up his trailer last week with supplies including tarps and thousands of bottles of water.
The conditions along the way, including gas shortages and flooded roads, added time and miles to the trip.
“We had almost 3 hours of detours trying to get to I-95 because the water was rising,” Gill said.
He racked-up 1,500 miles during 28 hours on the road. He said the trailer of supplies made an impact, but the recovery process will take much more.
"I’m like I need to go back with more stuff because people are desperate, we did not scratch the surface. We helped hundreds of people, and we did not scratch the surface of the people we helped,” Gill said.
He added he made contacts in North Carolina and plans to mail items directly until routes improve and he may return again. Gill said he will still collect items at these locations across the First Coast:
StrikeZone Fishing
11702 Beach Blvd.
Jacksonville, FL
Grand slam Boats
76 Dockside Dr #108
St Augustine, FL
Browns Creek Fish Camp
5212 Heckscher Dr,
Jacksonville, FL