Beaufort County residents who live outside town limits will be able to have the vegetative debris left behind by Hurricane Irene picked up free of charge by a contractor engaged by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

The contractor’s crews will travel state-maintained roads in the county to pick up debris beginning Tuesday, Sept. 6, and continuing through Sunday, Sept. 11, said Jim Chrisman, interim county manager.

People should leave their debris on the side of the road, preferably before Tuesday, Chrisman said.

Residents are asked not to place construction and demolition debris by the roadside – only vegetative debris, such as tree limbs or broken shrubbery.

Residents also may take their vegetative debris to the county’s convenience dump sites except the Hawkins Beach landfill. This landfill will only accept debris from DOT and GDS Waste Management, Chrisman advised.

Free food and water distribution sites are open in Beaufort County for victims of Irene.

The sites are at:

• Pamlico Beach, Life Gate Free Will Baptist Church;
• Hickory Point Road;
• the intersection of South Creek Road and Lumber Road.

Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. and dinner will be served at 5 p.m. at each of these sites.

Beaufort County government is coordinating with Civil Air Patrol, the American Red Cross and the National Guard to distribute food and water, said Jim Chrisman, interim county manager.

Anyone who has questions about this or other disaster-related subjects should call the county’s Emergency Operations Center at 252-946-2046.

People who have questions about federal disaster aid should call the Federal Emergency Management Agency at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362).

The county has also set up a volunteer coordinator to work with the faith-based and other nonprofit organizations pulling into the county to help storm victims.

The volunteer coordinator is Craig Judd. Judd may be reached by calling 252-940-6502. Any volunteer groups that enter the county are asked to call Judd, who will help direct them to the areas of greatest need.

Among the relief groups working in the county are the Baptist Men, the Methodist Men, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Mormon Men and others, Chrisman related.

“Beaufort County is very grateful for those agencies,” he said.

The county has two POD Sites. The sites are located at the Aurora Volunteer Fire Department and Pamlico Beach’s Life Gate Free Will Baptist Church. Ice and water will be distributed from these sites from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.

At these sites, residents will be able to pick up tarps, bottled water and cleaning kits to clean up their homes from flooding or other damage.

Chrisman urged people whose homes still don’t have power to not pick up their cleaning kits now. Those people should wait until their power is restored to pick up cleaning kits.

The Beaufort County Department of Social Services has stations at the Aurora fire department building and Life Gate Free Will Baptist Church, Chrisman said. Those stations will be used to distribute information on unmet needs in these communities.

“It’s not an application process for assistance,” Chrisman said, but people who need services will be referred from the site.

As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, 47 people were left in the emergency shelter at Washington High School. The shelter at P.S. Jones Middle School had been closed.

Marvin Davis, a spokesman for FEMA, was in Washington Thursday to explain what programs his agency is offering victims of the storm.

FEMA offers the following:

• rental payments for temporary housing for people whose homes are unlivable.
• grants for home repairs and the replacement of essential household items not covered by insurance to make homes safe and sanitary.
• grants to replace personal property needed for medical, dental, funeral, transportation or other disaster-tied needs that aren’t covered by insurance.
• unemployment payments related to the disaster.
• low-interest loans for residential losses.
• loans for farmers, ranchers and aquaculture operators.

Those who need more information about these programs should call FEMA.

A local FEMA office will be open south of the Pamlico River in the next couple of days, Davis said. The location of that office hadn’t been formally announced Thursday afternoon.

People are encouraged to call FEMA or visit its website, www.fema.gov, before visiting the office. Those who don’t have phone service may use phones at the office. These phones may be used only to call FEMA.

“We’ll be here as long as necessary,” Davis said.