A Home Depot in Wilmington, North Carolina, is passing out plywood free of charge to residents who are in Hurricane Florence’s path as the region braces for the Category 2 storm’s impact.
A video from WFLA shows dozens of residents lined up in front of the store to receive five sheets of plywood Wednesday as they hoped to handle any last-minute preparations before the storm makes landfall.
“They were letting five people at a time go inside,” said resident Julia Castellano, who was at the Home Depot’s Wilmington location picking up plywood to board her home. “There’s generators set up in the front and plywood in a certain area and that’s kind of what they have.”
The store was slated to close at 10:30 a.m., but employees chose to keep the store open to help those in the community.
“The store was closed but they were giving out plywood, free,” said Risa Johnson, a Wilmington resident. “They were giving out five free sheets of plywood per family. You didn’t have to pay and they were even helping you load it into your cars.”
Businesses from all over the country are pitching in to help residents of states affected by Hurricane Florence. The Ocean Resort Casino in New Jersey announced Wednesday it would be offering free rooms to those fleeing the storm, and Anheuser-Busch announced it would be sending 300,000 cans of water to those in hurricane-affected areas.
Hurricane Florence is slated to hit the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia. The outer edges of the storm made landfall on North Carolina’s coast Thursday morning.