According to Washington Utilities Transmission and Distribution Superintendent Alston Tankard, there are a few things the public should keep in mind as the storm approaches.

Should the tidal surge exceed the docks at the Washington waterfront and the promenade, the city will cut power to downtown Washington, specifically affecting businesses on Main Street. Businesses that rely on refrigeration to operate should make all nessecary preparations.

In the event of outages, Washington Utilities has established a call center at 252-975-9320.

“We’ll take every outage on a case-by-case basis, compile these outages that are reported and try to get them back up accordingly,” Tankard said.

Tankard said that the city has brought in additional manpower from three electrical contractors to help restore power in the wake of the storm. Assisting city workers will be contractors from Mastec, River City and Volt Power. The city has also secured help from a tree contractor to remove downed trees.