Cape Fear Valley Health System officials broke ground Thursday on a primary care facility that will replace one that was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew last year.

Cape Fear Valley Primary Care near Jack Britt High School on Rockfish Road will take the place of Hope Mills Family Care, which was irreparably damaged during the storm in October.

Hurricane Matthew dumped an all-time, one-day record 15 inches of rain in Fayetteville on Oct. 8. Some areas south of the city got more than a foot and a half of rain.

“Our last facility was destroyed by the hurricane,” said Daniel Weatherly, the health system’s chief operations officer. “As you remember, all that rain.”

Michael Nagowski, Cape Fear Valley Health System’s CEO, spoke at the groundbreaking.

“Our facility might have been taken down by Mother Nature, but not our spirit,” he said.

Nagowski said the project shows how people in Cumberland County and the area come together.

“This is a big deal, not only for Cape Fear Valley and Hope Mills, but for our whole region,” he said.

Hope Mills Mayor Jackie Warner said the town has bounced back from the hurricane’s destruction.

“Things like this are making us stronger than we were in October 2016,” she said. “We’re excited to have this in Hope Mills.”

Cape Fear Valley Primary Care will take up about half of a 10,000-square-foot retail building in the Rockfish Commons shopping center. It will be a part of the Cape Fear Valley Medical Group, with offices throughout Cumberland, Robeson, Sampson, Hoke and Harnett counties.

The new facility is expected to open in early spring. Staff members who were based at the Hope Mills facility have been working at Cape Fear Valley’s Hoke Hospital in Raeford.

Weatherly said the staff members helped design the new facility.

“We’ve had a lot of folks come together to make this happen,” he said.

Original Article: The Fayetteville Observer