Members of the American Honor Guards of North Carolina, a veteran group, say the pledge of allegiance during a ‘Back the Blue’ protest in July 2020. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

The Henrietta passes by a partly extracted car early Friday evening. Two bodies were discovered. A homeless woman said she heard the screams of the passengers just after midnight as the car sank into the river. (Read the story here.)

Freddie Fralin looks back at family members after receiving a sentence of 25 to 31 years imprisonment for the 2017 murder of Montez Greene, Tuesday, August 20, 2019. (Read the story here.)

Mike Hicks, left, helps lift his grill onto his back porch in a flooded neighborhood on Alexis Hales Road near the Black River in Currie, North Carolina on Wednesday evening, September 19, 2018. (Port City Daily photo | Mark Darrough)

Port City Proud volunteers stand on a fallen tree on Monday, September 24, 2018. The group of tattooed builders and carpenters formed Port City Proud in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, sending teams of volunteers throughout the city to cut trees from people’s properties free of charge. This was done to combat out-of-state tree removal companies charging exorbitant prices. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

A Coast Guard cargo plane flies over Carolina Beach on Monday, September 17, 2018. Pictured is a flooded section of Atlanta Avenue and 4th Street just north of the Carolina Beach Lake, three days after Hurricane Florence struck the region. (See the story and photo essay here.)

A flooded neighborhood on Alexis Hales Road near the Black River in Currie, North Carolina, Wednesday, September 19, 2018. Much of Pender County flooded due to the slow-moving Hurricane Florence. (Port City Daily photo | Mark Darrough)

Carolina Beach residents talk inside a carport just over an hour before Hurricane Isaias makes landfall to the southeast at Ocean Isle, 9:51 p.m. Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

A damaged Carolina Beach Fishing Pier the morning after Hurricane Isaias passed through the island town. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Public health nurses stand outside a drive-through tent where they will be administering nasal swabs for New Hanover County residents experiencing symptoms of Covid-19. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Public health nurse Tammy Dilling demonstrates how she will administer a nasal swab to New Hanover County residents reporting symptoms of Covid-19. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Public health nurse Tammy Dilling, who teaches at three schools in the county, was eager to join the frontline in fighting the pandemic. “I’m very blessed and excited. Public health is our role – we’re assigned school health but public health is our passion and our life,” she said.

Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines infantry battalion camped out at Bogue Airfield, just east of Swansboro. Nearly 500 Marines took part in what Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Ayers called the largest air assault exercise on the east coast in approximately 10 years. (See the award-winning photo essay here.)

A homeless camp in the woods behind Lowe’s Home Improvement, near homes along Lullwater Drive. Leaders of Wilmington’s two largest homeless shelters sent an open letter to Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and New Hanover County Chairwoman Julia Olson-Boseman, calling on each to take immediate action to protect the city’s homeless population from the regional spread of Covid-19. (Read the story here.)

Downtown Wilmington as Governor Roy Cooper’s ‘stay at home’ order went into effect at 5 p.m. Monday, March 30. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Published by NBC News: Portraits of Wilmington residents wearing homemade cloth masks, ski masks, bandanas, N-95 respirators, and surgical masks. (Read the story and photo essay here.)

Greg Casaletto inside one of the freezers at the Food Bank’s distribution facility in Wilmington. “Before [the Covid-19 pandemic], we’d get 800 pounds of meat from grocery stores [per day]. After this started, we get maybe 250 to 300 pounds, some days 40 to 50 pounds,” Casaletto said. (Read: Covid-19’s long-term impact on Wilmington-area food insecurity)

Customers order at a restaurant in Wrightvsille Beach following Governor Roy Cooper’s executive order signed on May 20 to reopen at 50% capacity – 66 days after restaurants were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A protestor attempts to put out a fire where a tear gas canister struck the street, May 30, 2020. Most of the crowd of protestors outside City Hall had dispersed after the first volley of tear gas canisters fired by the deputies. (Read the story here.)

A protestor holds up a sign as he and others refuse to disperse. (Read the story and photo essay here.)

Black Lives Matter protestors outside City Hall in early May. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Bald Head Island, just east of Southport. (See the photo essay here.)

North of Bald Head Island at Kure Beach, the dark waters of the Cape Fear contrast with the aqua blue of the Atlantic. (See the photo essay here.)

A shrimp boat south of Oak Island in the Atlantic Ocean. (See the photo essay here.)

The Oak Island Lighthouse with Molasses, Coward, and Boathouse creeks to the north. (See the photo essay here.)

More than 300 people pack Surf City’s largest bar, Tortuga’s Nest, for a wrestling roadshow nicknamed the “Baddest Lil Show on Earth.” (See the photo essay here.)

Raymond Brooks of Bladen County makes his first appearance at the Pender County Superior Court as Sheriff Alan Cutler, right, points to where he will stand before Judge Lindsey McKee. Brooks and his sister was accused for “heinous” robbery and murder of UNCW student and Army veteran Christopher Stewart. (Read the story here.)

Reginald L. Wilkins kneels and raises his arms in surrender to Jacksonville Police SWAT officers as he exits a duplex in the Creekwood South community of Wilmington. (Port City Daily photo / Mark Darrough)

A young girl attends a rally hosted by Lara Trump to encourage voters to re-elect her father-in-law, Donald Trump.

Rallygoers listen to Lara Trump Wednesday night, October 14, 2020. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Lara Trump speaks at a rally held at the New Hanover County GOP headquarters. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Lara Trump speaks at a rally held at the New Hanover County GOP headquarters. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Women look at a Make America Great winter hat in a tent set up outside the New Hanover GOP building on Market Street. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Horror film character Michael Myers walks toward his victim, a young boy, on the sidewalk of Pender Avenue during a scene shot in the Carolina Place neighborhood near Wallace Park, September 27, 2019. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Hundreds of people line the Riverfront to watch a crane from a river barge lift the boat from the water. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Sheri Ulcakova holds a sign in protest of the New Hanover County School Board’s discussion to reopen classrooms. She said the county should remain on a Plan C model until the entire country’s Covid-19 case numbers fall to an acceptable level. (Read the story here.)

Protestors outside the New Hanover Schools Board meeting hold signs urging the district against a decision to open a full classroom model, Sep. 21, 2020. (Read the story here.)

Former mayor of New York City and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg prepares to speak during a rally at Laney High School, February 28, 2020. (Read the story here.)

Former mayor of New York City and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg talks with supporters, including Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo to his left, before speaking at a rally at Laney High School, February 28, 2020. (Read the story here.)

Michael Bloomberg addresses the crowd at Laney High School on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 29. "Now I think I'm the only candidate to come to Wilmington, but all of them should visit. Senator Warren could go to Elizabeth's Pizza on Market Street. Klobuchar could do a Flaming Amy's restaurant, and Senator Sanders could go to the KGB Bar," Bloomberg said, joking about recent reports that Bernie Sanders' campaign was being supported by Russia. "When my speech writer came up with that one I thought that was pretty good too."

Alan and Maureen Abbate watch as Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg speaks to the crowd, Feb. 29, 2020. (Read the story here.)

Supporters of the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center outside the county courthouse in Wilmington before county commissioners voted in approval of the $1.9-billion sale. (Read the story here.)

Supporters of the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center listen to a county commissioners’ meeting on their phones outside the county courthouse in Wilmington before commissioners voted in approval of the $1.9-billion sale. (Read the story here.)

A four-to-five-foot escarpment on the 1300-block of North Shore Drive in Surf City on Monday afternoon, Nov. 18, 2019. (Read the story here.)

Graciana Love from Down to Earth Aerials performs a fire dancing routine for people waiting in line at the Panic Attack haunted house in southern Columbus County. (Read the story here.)

A group of girls hold on to each other as they enter a haunted castle at the Panic Attack haunted house in southern Columbus County. (Read the story here.)

At the Panic Attack haunted house in southern Columbus County, a clown attacks a woman before 'eating' her stomach as she screams in pain. He repeated, "I'll eat my cake!" (Read the story here.)

An N.C. Forest Service wildfire response crew calls it a day after fighting to control the spread of a wildfire on Friday inside the Holly Shelter Game Land on Friday. It began as a controlled burn on Monday before it broke out into an uncontrolled wildfire. (Read the story here.)

Volunteers at the Karen Beasley Rescue & Rehabilitation Center are taught to carefully hold a turtle that had received two bites from an unknown predator. "This could possibly be a full-thickness bite, meaning it goes through from one side to the other," director and founder Jean Beasley told volunteers. The barnacles on top of its shell will be taken off in a week, to avoid adding more trauma when they first arrive. (Read the full story here.)

One of two wing engines of a Ford Tri-Motor as it flies over Southport. The third is installed at the nose of the plane. (Read the story here.)

The crowd salutes the life of Danny Swinson at a memorial fundraiser held in the Carolina Beach resident’s honor. (Read: ‘Guardian of the Vibe’: Carolina Beach celebrates the life of local legend Danny Swinson)

A mother and her infant child were killed Friday morning when a large tree, pictured, fell onto their house on Mercer Avenue, marking the first confirmed fatalities of Hurricane Florence in Wilmington. Television crews prepare to shoot footage of the scene, September 14, 2018.

Curtis Dansby from Alpha-1 Tree and Crane Company out of Atlanta, Texas cuts a tree from a house on Wrightsville Avenue. As residents continued to clear their properties in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, there had been complaints of widespread price gouging from tree removal companies — especially those coming into the area from outside North Carolina. (Read the story here.)

First Sergeant Andrew McNulty oversees a contracted excavator filling in a washout on Boiling Springs Lake Road in the town of Boiling Springs Lake, days after Hurricane Florence broke a damn in the small coastal town. (Port City Daily photo | Mark Darrough)

One of the large washouts on Boiling Spring Lakes Road, the now empty Patricia Lake in the background, Sunday morning, September 22, 2018. The washout occurred after the lake’s dam was breached by Hurricane Florence.

Carolina Beach Lake, three days after Hurricane Florence made landfall a few miles north in Wrightsville Beach, Monday, September 17, 2018 (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

A fallen tree caused extensive water damage inside a Wilmington home after Hurricane Florence. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

A damaged patio at a Wilmington home days after Hurricane Florence.

Leaves cover a neighborhood near the Intracoastal Waterway in Wilmington a day after Hurricane Florence made landfall, September 15, 2018.

A tree removal crew removes a large oak tree that had fallen on Market Street shortly after Hurricane Florence made landfall.

A flooded Wallace Park after Hurricane Florence made landfall. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

A tree rests on the damaged roof of a house in the Carolina Place neighborhood in Wilmington during the calm between the inner bands of Hurricane Florence Friday morning, September 14, 2018. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Alex Worblewski, a freelance journalist from Washington D.C., walks down Princess Street in the Carolina Heights neighborhood east of downtown Wilmington during the calm between the inner bands of Hurricane Florence Friday morning. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

An uprooted tree shows severe damage to the foundation of a home during the calm between the inner bands of Hurricane Florence Friday morning, September 14, 2018. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)

Evan Gadow drives his boat out to a 17-acre lease next to Permuda Island to prepare for the next day's oyster harvest. (Read the story here.)