Lake Assault Boats in Superior completed work on the 31-foot vessel right on schedule, but it's still waiting on a pair of 300-horsepower Mercury Verado outboard motors to arrive.  

Chad DuMars, vice president of operations for Lake Assault, explained that bruising back-to-back hurricane seasons damaged many boats in coastal communities, and the rush to repower disabled vessels has left large outboard motors in short supply nationwide. Given the current wait times, DuMars said he expects the backordered twin Mercs to arrive late this year or by early 2019.

The revised schedule now calls for Lake Assault to take the boat through spring sea trials shortly after ice-out this spring, dialing in navigation systems and putting the vessel through its paces before delivering it to the Duluth Fire Department.

The North East Volunteer Fire Department's fire station on Highway 41 outside of Wallace had five feet of water inside because of the hurricane.

Chief Kenneth Cavenaugh says one fire truck was destroyed by the storm while all other trucks were relocated along with as much other firefighting equipment as they could save.

The chief said while his 28 firefighters were out rescuing storm victims, 23 of them had damage to their own homes, with 19 of those flooded.

On Wednesday, the truck will be outside the Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. On Friday, the truck will be outside the Roper St. Francis Cancer Center in West Ashley from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  

“We see the impact of increasing awareness every year,” breast cancer surgeon Dr. Megan Baker said. “We see an increase in our screenings and with that the diagnoses that come.”