Washington power out for 3 days, curfew in place

Published 2:38 pm Sunday, October 9, 2016

By Mike Voss

A tree felled by Hurricane Matthew's winds blocks McCotter's Marina Road. (Vail Stewart Rumley)

Washington’s power will not be restored for several days, according to Bobby Roberson, city manager.

“There are more than 3 million people without power,” he said Sunday afternoon. “The latest on us is it looks like it’s going to be Wednesday before we can get our power back on here. We’re on the same circuit as Hookerton, Lumberton, Red Springs and that area, so we’re definitely out. It looks like it’s going to be Wednesday at the earliest.”

Beaufort County Schools cancelled classes for students and staff on Monday, and school schedules will be considered on a day-to-day basis for days following.

The city has invoked a curfew from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily until Thursday, or until power is restored, Roberson said. “The reason we did it is because there are no lights downtown,” he said.

Someone broke into Washington Jewelers by breaking a window and crawling over a security gate, Roberson said. The person was cut badly, leaving a trail of blood behind. The person stole some jewelry from a glass counter, Roberson said.

Portable stop signs are being erected at intersections where traffic signals are not working, he said.

Beaufort County Emergency Management is reminding drivers to treat all intersections with nonworking traffic lights as four-way stops.

“Other than those things, we’re doing pretty good,” Roberson said.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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