Tropical Storm Hermine swept through Tyrrell County Saturday, Sept. 3, producing widespread flooding, power outages and wind damage.

A tractor-trailer driver was killed when his rig overturned on the Alligator River Bridge shortly before 10 a.m., closing the U.S. Highway 64 corridor for seven hours.

Motorists traveling to the Outer Banks were rerouted over N.C. Highway 94 and U.S. Highway 264, but several vehicles stalled in high water near Northwest Fork bridge south of Columbia, said Sheriff Darryl Liverman.

Sheriff’s deputies and Tyrrell Volunteer Fire Department personnel aided numerous motorists who became disabled in the water. Even after U.S. Highway 64 reopened emergency crews helped disabled motorists in the same area.

All roads in the county were open by Sunday morning, “with water still on several of them,” the sheriff reported.

Rising water closed North Road Street in Columbia early on, but it receded by Sunday morning enough that traffic could flow again.

“There are still yards flooded in several areas of the county,” Sheriff Liverman stated, “and several areas are also still without power.”

A crew from Tyrrell Prison Work Farm worked to clear streets in Columbia Sunday morning.

At mid-morning Saturday, as the tropical storm was passing through this area, the sheriff reported that the Tyrrell County 911 Center had received “numerous calls about downed trees and power lines throughout the county. There are power outages in areas of the county. Also numerous roads are flooded in the county. There has been a report of flooding at one residence. There are numerous streets flooded in the Town of Columbia and Road Street in Columbia has been blocked off because of flood waters. DOT crews and the Tyrrell Volunteer Fire Department are out clearing trees off roads throughout the county.”