Some, like the Alamance County, N.C., Sheriff’s Office, Burlington Animal Services and Haw River Fire Department, physically traveled east to provide support for counties and cities, while the county Department of Social Services has tasked local employees with helping with another county’s food and nutrition recertifications.
“I’m not surprised,” County Manager Craig Honeycutt said. “This is what you do when you are a public servant. … I am very proud to be part of an organization that not only gives back to our community but others in the state.”
Twelve Alamance deputies and the county’s assistant emergency management coordinator went to Robeson County, and four environmental health specialists went to Beaufort County.
The deputies provided a variety of support. Robeson County includes the severely affected city of Lumberton. The deputies patrolled, handled traffic duty and, in some cases, manned a boat looking for missing people.
“I have some of the finest officers, not because they work for me and my agency,” Sheriff Terry Johnson said, “they agreed to go down there because they care about the people, and not just the people of Alamance County. I am proud of every single one of them. They spent a lot of time without sleep, without eating, and they did it because they believed they were supposed to.”
Carl Carroll, environmental health director, said he hopes that Alamance County never has to experience flooding like his staff experienced downeast, but it did provide good training in case the situation arises locally. Those employees made sure food service facilities, like restaurants and meat markets, were ready to serve food to the public after losing power for several days.
More than two dozen employees within DSS are reviewing 1,000 food and nutrition recertifications from people who are food stamp recipients and lost food to power outages, DSS Director Susan Osborne said.
They have to key in each request and look at what was originally allotted, how much is being recompensed by the federal government, and how much needs to come from the county, she said.
“I wish we could do more,” Osborne said. “Our counties in the east have really been hit hard.”
Haw River Fire Chief Jamie Joseph had two Haw River firefighters travel to Dare County to help rebuild the Frisco Beach Fire Department station. It had more than six feet of water, and as the Outer Banks island’s only precinct, it was imperative to get it back in operation, he said.
“I think it’s great that Haw River could provide assistance and had the means to send staff down there to help other people,” he said.
Mebane City Manager David Cheek said the city fire department was on standby for two missions but each was canceled right before they were set to depart. Graham City Manager Frankie Maness said they hadn’t sent anyone, but it had been discussed with a couple of cities as a possibility.
———
©2016 Times-News (Burlington, N.C.)
Visit Times-News (Burlington, N.C.) at www.thetimesnews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
