Princeville, flooded in 1999, has increased its population, hopes

Recount of census will help bring new financing from state THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH Princeville, a slave-founded town that was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 1999, is making a comeback after all. A special census recount found that the town has 2,029 residents, more than twice as many as the 974 found during the official count released in 2000. The increased head count means an additional $300,000 a year in state money - a big deal in a municipality where the annual budget is $1.1 million. At the time of the 2000 census, Princeville, about 60 miles northeast of Raleigh, was still mostly a disaster zone. For nine days in September 1999, much of the town founded by freed slaves in 1865 sat under as much as 11 feet of water from the flooded Tar River. Homes and business rotted and warped, and all the town's public housing units, including 50 apartments in a single complex, had to be demolished. Most residents abandoned their soggy, sagging homes for drier ground. Many of them didn't return for more than a year - after census-takers had finished their work in the spring of 2000. Source: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031780433343&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099