At Dare meeting, officials stress need to evacuate

Speaking at the Dare County Commissioners meeting on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 3, Commissioner Chairman Bob Woodard and County Manager Bobby Outten urged residents to heed the mandatory evacuation order that goes into effect at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4. The county’s visitors have been told to evacuate on Tuesday.

Reviewing the evacuation decision made by the Dare County Control Group during its Monday meeting, Woodard said, “I am here to tell you that Dorian is a huge storm…I want to state publicly that the Control Group bases our decisions, totally, one hundred percent, on the safety of our visitors and the safety of our citizens. We will err, always, on the side of caution.”

“We issued the State of Emergency,” Woodard added, “based on data from multiple, multiple groups of weather information.”

For his part, Outten discussed the timetable for county services, noting that the Tuesday trash pickup will occur as scheduled, while commercial trash only will be picked up on Wednesday. He also said that all county offices will close until further notice as of noon Wednesday.

In his remarks, Outten made clear that the county services, including EMS, will be suspended during the storm.

“If you choose not to evacuate, I will tell you that during this storm, and [for a period] after the storm, we cannot respond,” he said. “You’re basically on your own for that time.”
In a move designed to help the flow of evacuating traffic heading north, the city of Chesapeake has announced that starting Tuesday at noon, it will suspend tolls for northbound traffic on the Route 168 Chesapeake Expressway.

In addition, the Dare County Control Group will meet again to assess the situation on Tuesday at 1 p.m.