The internet went crazy for the American flag flying proudly at Frying Pan Tower as Florence approached Wilmington.

We were all glued to the Explore.org Frying Pan cam as Hurricane Florence approached the coast. (For those who don’t know, Frying Pan tower is an old Coast Guard tower turned B&B located 32 miles off the coast of southeastern NC). But we weren’t all glued to Florence – instead, we were captivated by an American Flag taking a beating as Florence approached.

Richard Neal, the owner of Frying Pan Tower, received multiple complaints from people who were upset that the flag was left out in the storm. Then he moved the camera so the flag was no longer visible, and received more complaints from people wanting to see how the flag was doing.

A group of people who were watching named the flag ‘Kevin.’ They wanted to know how ‘Kevin’ was doing – if ‘Kevin’ would make it through the storm. (Kevin is even on Twitter – follow here)

Even though it’s against flag protocol, Neal moved the camera back to ‘Kevin.’

Neal told McClatchy, “It was then that I realized that you can’t make everyone happy, so I moved the feed back to showing the flag again. Because even if it was against flag protocol, that flag represents who we are as America. We get beat up, battered during hard times, but we stay up, stay at it through the storm.”

No ‘Kevin’ is on his way to a new home – the flag will be auctioned off