‘Conway Strong Day’: Festival to celebrate one year of Hurricane Florence recovery

It’s been nearly a year since Hurricane Florence left much of the City of Conway underwater in October of 2018.

While the recovery work is ongoing, the city is planning a “Conway Strong” day on Oct. 5 to celebrate a year’s worth of community effort to survive the impacts of Hurricane Florence.

City council approved the request for the downtown event at its Monday meeting. More specific details will be available closer to the event, but plans include food vendors, a kids zone and nonprofit information.

In addition, the event will show how far Conway has come since the record-breaking flood. Mayor Barbara Blain-Bellamy said while not all of the area, including Riverfront Park, is repaired, the Conway Strong event will allow residents to enjoy the parts that have been fixed or will be fixed by then.

“Not everything will be 100 percent by early October, but we think the public will be thrilled to see a return to access of our parks,” she said. “Let’s be a part of doing things that celebrate our survival.”

During the event, trees will be planted and given out to the public. Blain-Bellamy said the species of trees are going to be picked based off their ability to hold water.

“We will select trees that will best benefit areas where there is the most water,” she said.

If people want to take a tree home, the mayor said to keep an eye on Conway’s social media accounts for more information on how the trees will be handed out.

This story was originally published August 5, 2019 at 7:52 PM.