| Official Name: | Riegelwood, North Carolina |
| Settlement Type: | Census-designated place |
| Pushpin Map: | North Carolina#USA |
| Pushpin Label: | Riegelwood |
| Pushpin Label Position: | top |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within the state of North Carolina |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | North Carolina |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | ColumbusBrunswickPender |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 8.74 |
| Area Land Km2: | 7.99 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.75 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 3.37 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 3.08 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.29 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 545 |
| Population Density Km2: | 68.22 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 176.72 |
| Timezone: | Eastern (EST) |
| Utc Offset: | -5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -4 |
| Elevation Ft: | 43 |
| Coordinates: | 34.3444°N -78.2197°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP code |
| Postal Code: | 28456 |
| Area Codes: | 910, 472 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 37-56600[2] |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 2628650 |
Riegelwood is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) which sprawls across three counties: Brunswick County, North Carolina; Pender County, North Carolina; Columbus County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 579.[3] It is the location of a saw mill and a paper mill.
The Black Rock Plantation House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.[4]
Riegelwood is located near the eastern tip of Columbus County, south of Mitchell Landing on the Cape Fear River, site of an International Paper plant. North Carolina Highway 87 passes through Riegelwood, leading southeast 2miles to U.S. Routes 74 and 76 in Delco and northwest to Elizabethtown. Wilmington is to the southeast via US 74/76.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Riegelwood CDP has a total area of 8.8sqkm, of which 8.1sqkm is land and 0.7sqkm, or 8.28%, is water.[3]
See main article: Tornado outbreak of November 14–16, 2006. On November 16, 2006, at 6:21 am EST, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for eastern Columbus County. At 6:29 am, a tornado warning was issued for the same area. At 6:37, an F3 tornado struck a mobile home park and killed eight people, including two children, Danny Jacobs, 6, and Miguel Martinez, 13. Twenty people were injured. The tornado was a part of a 3-day tornado outbreak in the south in which four other deaths were reported. Riegelwood was one of the hardest hit areas.
On Friday, November 17, 2006, a NOAA National Weather Service storm survey team assessed the tornado damage and rated it at F3 on the Fujita scale for nearly a mile in Riegelwood, with winds approaching . The maximum width of the tornado was 300 yards where the F3 damage occurred. The rest of the 7miles damage path was less than 100 yards wide and rated at F1, with winds less than 100 mph extending north across Columbus County into western Pender County.
The Columbus County sheriff reported thirty homes destroyed in the F3 damage area, and another three structures were damaged in Pender County just west of Currie.