Couple rides out storm on top of old light station

NORTH CAROLINA: Talk about braving the storm.

A North Carolina man and his fiancee are riding out Hurricane Matthew on top of an old Coast Guard light station more than 48km off the Atlantic coast.

Richard Neal is the owner of Frying Pan Tower, a platform that is about 30 or so meters above the ocean, only reachable by helicopter

360° or boat. While the views of sunsets and sunrises are amazing, there’s no land in sight.

Neal purchased the light station from the government after the Coast Guard abandoned it 2004, saying GPS and radar made the light station obsolete for ships navigating the shallow Frying Pan Shoals.

Neal rents the tower out as a vacation home, touting the mild weather and good fishing in the Gulf Stream below.

“I can honestly say that this is a solid old beast,” Neal said of the light station during a brief phone interview on Saturday as the centre of the storm turned towards him.

“We are getting some amazingly huge waves that make it shake and tremor,” he said. “But steel is amazingly tough.” Neal said he believed the tower would be safe because he “accidentally” rode out Hurricane Arthur on it two years ago.

That time he and his guests got trapped by the storm and couldn’t leave.

Arthur and Matthew had about the same wind speeds as they approached North Carolina. — AP