While a polar vortex sent temperatures plummeting to record-breaking lows across the nation this week, local officials are calling Beaufort County fortunate for the lack of emergencies created by the extreme cold.

According to Emergency Service Specialist Lisa Respess, preparation played a big part in that.

“I think people really did prepare, from the top down,” Respess said. “I think utilities companies were prepared: they put out good information about conserving energy; people didn’t stay out when it was cold. I heard of a few people who had frozen pipes, but not a lot.”

When the weather brings eastern North Carolina such severe cold, residents sometimes resort to alternative heating — like space heaters, heat lamps — and that’s always cause for concern, according to Washington Fire Chief Robbie Rose.

“We’ve been really fortunate with (the weather) as far as fire-related issues,” Rose said. “We’ve not really seen anything significant.”

In the county, emergency personnel responded to two fires, Respess said: a detached garage in the Riverbirch neighborhood off Market Street Extension and another attached garage fire in the Pungo area. The detached garage was a complete loss. In both fires, a heat lamp was in use — in one case, to warm a pet — but it is unknown whether the lamps were the cause of either fire.

“(Heat lamps) are very hazardous because that bulb gets really hot, especially if there’s anything combustible around it,” Respess said.

Other community activists were working behind the scenes to make sure the area’s homeless, and other victims of the weather, were not on the streets during the extreme cold.

“We were prepared to open if people got stuck — a warming station, hot coffee — a way for them to get out of the elements until their situation was taken care of,” Salvation Army’s Lt. Bruce Rabon said.

Jonathan Gaskins, director of Zion Shelter, Washington’s homeless shelter, was surprised the shelter wasn’t full due to cold.

“Actually, we’ve had a decrease. We carry up to 11 guys. Right now we’re at nine. I can’t explain it — I expected it to be full right now,” Gaskins said.

Gaskins attributed the recent decrease in shelter numbers to the clientele leaving Beaufort County to look for jobs in Greenville and the fact the shelter stopped taking in registered sex offenders in October 2013.