Dorian leaves Tyrrell County with power outages and government closures
Published 4:57 pm Thursday, September 12, 2019
Hurricane Dorian swept through Tyrrell County on Friday, Sept. 6, felling trees, scattering limbs and other debris, flooding roadways and other low-lying areas.
Many households had lost electric power by daylight and did not regain service until Saturday. Some were forced to use emergency measures through Sunday afternoon and beyond.
The county commissioners declared a state of emergency early Tuesday afternoon, and ordered a voluntary evacuation of the county to begin at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
The chairman was authorized to order a curfew and halt alcoholic beverage sales if needed.
Tyrrell Emergency Management issued a robo call alert at 8:10 a.m. Wednesday that a voluntary evacuation order was in effect and advised that an approved shelter was open in Weldon.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a mobile device Extreme Alert at 11:10 a.m. Wednesday that Tyrrell County was under a Hurricane Warning.
At 1:34 p.m. Wednesday notice went out that Tyrrell County Government Offices would close Thursday at 1:00 p.m. and would be closed on Friday, Sept. 6.
NWS predicted 10-15 inches of rain would fall on Tyrrell County between Thursday morning and Sunday morning, with Tropical-Storm force winds beginning about 2 a.m. Friday.
Not to be outdone by his predecessors, Dorian forced cancellation of four disaster recovery information sessions scheduled for eastern North Carolina. The sessions were to focus on the aftermath of Hurricanes Florence and Matthew.