Frying Pan Tower flag up for auction with bids topping $2,500

The storm-tattered Frying Pan Tower flag from just off the coast is up for auction.

Posted 12:10 p.m. Sep 28, 2018 — Updated 12:21 p.m. Sep 28, 2018

The storm-tattered Frying Pan Tower flag is up for auction.

The flag, loved and known for withstanding the intense winds from Hurricane Florence, even has a name -- it has been dubbed "Kevin."

Frying Pan Tower owner Richard Neal donated the flag to the American Red Cross, which put it up for bid on ebay. As Neal hoped, 100 percent of the auction's proceeds will go directly to Hurricane Florence relief assistance through the American Red Cross. The current bid is already to to $2,550.

Neal purchased Frying Pan Tower, a former Coast Guard light station approximately 34 miles off the coast, in an auction in 2010. He and volunteers have since restored the tower and converted it into a bed and breakfast.

While the famous flag is raising money for hurricane victims, a new flag flies at the tower. Normal protocol for the flag, Neal said, is to replace it once it begins to become tattered. The flag is then retired.

"Flying the American flag in strenuous or difficult or dangerous circumstances when you can't really do anything about it but stand behind it with pride and honor is kind of something we thought was an appropriate way of handling this," Neal said.

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