Frisco Pier damage causes heartbreak

Hurricane Earl, which passed 55 miles off Hatteras as a Category 2 storm early Friday, tore away some sections and buckled other portions of the pier.

"My husband and I are natives of the island, and we love this pier ourselves," Angie Gaskill, owner of the Frisco Pier, said.

Gaskill and her husband Tom bought the pier after it was damaged by Hurricane Isabel in 2003, she said, and he's worked hard to repair it.

"He rebuilt it after Isabel. It's blood, sweat and tears, is what it is for me," Gaskill said.

Malcolm Peele said his uncle used to run the Frisco Pier, and he considers it part of his family history.

"We spent years down here. It's just been a real special place to us," Peele said. "We spent time on the pier, under it, around it, swimming, fishing, spending nights out on the pier."

Gaskill said she and her husband want to rebuild the pier, but doing so will be tough. She estimated it could cost at least $500,000.

"It's a costly structure," she said. "As far as the income, it doesn't make the money to repair what you see."

Gaskill couldn't say when reconstruction on the pier might begin.

"I really hate to see what's happened to it," Peele said.