City of Washington gives Saturday morning update

Published 10:25 am Saturday, September 15, 2018

The City of Washington issued the following update as of 9 a.m. Saturday.

Good morning City of Washington! Please review Hurricane Florence updates as of 9 a.m. this Saturday.

Street Conditions

Water still remains in approximately 50 percent of our street system.

The Police Department has “coned” off those streets that still have water remaining. Several cars are stranded within the Central Business District and efforts are being made to move the cars in order to travel once Water Street is open.

Our offices have had numerous calls concerning River Road. The City of Washington has no jurisdiction on River Road. NCDOT controls the access and maintenance from Washington Park to the Washington Country Club. Once again, certain Streets within the City of Washington are controlled by NCDOT.

Currently the city has no trees that haven fallen across our rights of way.

Fire/Rescue/EMS

The count of people evacuated remains at approximately 300 persons; EMS transports total 12; Fire responses total 11. We have created a modified shift to allow our personnel rest. Normal shift rotation will begin Sunday.

Electric

All of circuits are up and running. Approximately 300 customers still remain out of service. Our crews along with outside crews assisting our lineman should have most of the electrical services back on by 4 p.m. Power will be restored today at 4 p.m. within the Central Business District.

Public Works

All of our drinking water is safe and we have ample supply still remaining in our system.

Sewer lift stations are slowly coming back on through our system. We are still using portable generators and service is on-going.

The Jack’s Creek pump station is still operating off our electrical system and all of our pumps are at capacity to remove water adjacent to the creek and the central part of the

Water from the hurricane pushed water up to the intersection of Market and Main Street. This morning at 6 a.m. the water has moved down Market Street within 6 feet of Water Street. If this trend continues all of the water should be gone by Monday afternoon around 4 p.m.

Normal Shift Rotations

All of our shift personnel with resume their normal shift rotation work beginning Monday, September 17, 2018.

Thank you all for your understanding, patience, and comments during these difficult times.

Please be safe today. It’s not quite over yet as clean up has yet to begin!