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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Western NC Pride events celebrate resilience post-Helene
LAKE LURE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — This Pride Month, western North Carolina communities are celebrating, while also working to rebuild from Hurricane Helene. The storm caused widespread and severe damage, left people without water and electricity for weeks and forced the closure of businesses. At Grey Hawk Bar & Gardens in Lake Lure, you'll find a quiet sense of calm hanging over the property. The beautiful flowers and carefully designed seating areas are quite the contrast with what things looked like in late September 2024. 'The whole property was sort of sheeted with water, some surface level flooding, a few trees down,' said co-owner George Carter. 'But really we were very, very lucky.' Others down the road weren't as lucky. 'Houses underwater, boat houses underwater, boats popping through the roofs of their boat houses, so it was it was shock,' said Carter. 'It really was shock.' Nearly nine months later, things are looking a lot better for Lake Lure and for Grey Hawk. After months of closure and slow business, the cocktails are flowing, and people are coming back to the restaurant just in time for the co-owners to get ready to host a Pride Festival coming up on June 21. They believe it'll be Rutherford County's first. 2025 Charlotte Pride festival and parade: Your guide to a colorful weekend 'I do think that there will be a slight difference this year of just folks feeling closer, feeling a sense of relief and ready to just kind of, you know, soak in the sun, unwind and be with each other,' said co-owner Adam Polaski. When Polaski isn't at the restaurant, he's doing advocacy work with the Campaign for Southern Equality in Asheville. 'Historically, LGBTQ folks have less access to resources across the board anyway at any time, especially during Helene,' said Sheri Keller, who works with the campaign. 'There was a lot of churches that had resources and folks that are not normally accepted at churches or might have some trauma around that were able to come here and feel like feel in a safe space.' The team started a weekly resource center where people could get the necessities, but also haircuts and massages to regain a sense of normalcy. 'As the immediate needs from the storm have kind of dissipated, there's still this need for community and that's why we have continued to do this center every month,' said Dorian Volpe, who works with the campaign. With Western North Carolina Pride events coming up throughout the month of June, these allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community are reflecting on the lessons the storm taught them. 'We connected to our neighbors differently,' said Volpe. 'We shared supplies, we shared food, we shared resources. And I'm really optimistic that some of that will carry over into the pride events in this season.' They're also looking back on what it's meant to them to welcome the community into a safe space. 'People think of Lake Lure as being pretty homogeneous and pretty like sort of similar type of person who lives here,' said Carter. 'But as we've sort of settled in here, we we've seen that there's all types of people here and we have really found joy in bringing them out.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Footage could show latest evidence of famous Evansville ghost
EVANSVILLE – The latest potential evidence of a famous Evansville ghost surfaced earlier this month, when a door at Willard Library appeared to open and close on its own. The library posted security footage of the incident to its Facebook page Friday morning. Timestamped April 17 around 5:45 p.m., the video shows a lower-level entrance near the elevator. No people are in frame, and the glass on the door provides a clear view of the outside, proving no one is around. The door suddenly cracks open. It shuts just as quickly. The post notes that it happened about 15 minutes after staff left for the day and locked – and alarmed – all the doors. The library claims it has footage of employees double-checking the entrances before they left. 'Important note: The alarm system will not arm unless all doors are properly latched,' the post reads. Later that night, as director George Carter returned to Willard to work after-hours, he received a call from the alarm company that an open door had 'triggered the system.' 'The director informed them he was already on-site and would investigate,' the post reads. 'When he checked the door in question, it was still securely locked. Upon reviewing the security footage, this is what he discovered.' Although Willard's post doesn't mention her by name, commenters were quick to evoke the Grey Lady: the famed specter that's supposedly haunted Willard since at least the late 1930s. Unquestionably the most famous poltergeist in the city's history, she's attracted everyone from SyFy's 'Ghost Hunters' to renowned psychic Lorraine Warren, who went on to depicted by Vera Farmiga in 'The Conjuring' franchise. The library maintains 24-hour 'ghost cams' in its children's section for anyone who wants to catch her in action. And over the years, patrons and employees alike have reported vaporous taps on the shoulder; mysterious falling books; chairs shoved away from desks while no one is around. Berry Global employees next door have even seen the library elevator climbing and falling on its own throughout the night. A few years ago, two Willard staffers were watching surveillance footage when they spotted a woman who appeared to be wearing a costume: a long, gray dress and veil. 'They were kind of keeping an eye on her and she just dissipated into thin air,' Arrika Taylor, Willard's adult services librarian, told the Courier & Press in 2021. 'Disappeared right in front of their eyes.' No veiled specter can be seen in the latest footage. Some commenters blame the wind. But it would have to be a stiff breeze to jostle a latched, locked door. This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Footage could show latest evidence of famous Evansville ghost
