Hermine leaves little mark on Wayne
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on September 4, 2016 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Workers repair electric service at 405 Madison Ave. on Saturday morning after wind from Tropical Storm Hermine caused a large limb to fall.
Wayne County dodged a bullet this weekend, when the tropical storm downgraded from Hurricane Hermine status blew across North Carolina.
Local emergency management agencies had met Thursday to discuss strategies should winds and rains wreak havoc on the area.
But by Saturday morning, the damage was minimal, officials said.
"I don't have any rain measurements or anything, but overnight we did pretty well," Craig Brown, emergency management coordinator, said on Saturday. "The rain was heavy at times, the wind, we received steady winds between 15 and 20, 25 miles per hour. There were only a couple gusts in the mid-40s (miles per hour).
"We had minimal power outages, if it was power outages -- a tree limb leaned over and touched power lines and one or two transformers either had been on fire or popped a fuse."
Brown said he had received no reports of injuries or other problems from the county's first responders.
"Really, we had a great overnight in my eyes," he said. "Nobody's called me and said they had any damages.
"I feel great about the way we weathered the storm."
Jose Martinez, Goldsboro public works director, told a similar version in the aftermath of the storm.
"We dodged the bullet," he said.
He said one call came in around 11 p.m. Friday night reporting a tree had fallen down, and a similar call came in around 5:30 Saturday morning. In both cases, the same three-person team went out and resolved the issues.
"Three people and a backhoe" took care of it, he said.
"Besides that, we haven't had any reports of flash flooding," he said. "We prepared for much worse, hoped for the best and probably got as best as we could have hoped for."
Martinez said when the agencies met Thursday in anticipation of the potential storm, he had advised that calls be directed to his office.
"I haven't got any calls from the fire department or police department," he said. "We were pretty well prepared for it but fortunately we didn't have to activate."