By Thomas Goldsmith, North Carolina Health News Flooded state roads caused by Hurricane Florence meant that Wilmington was cut off from land routes Sunday, leaving the port city of 120,000 on the brink of closing its water plant because of waning fuel supplies.
“We are having a lot of road access issues into and out of the county,” said New Hanover County communications and outreach coordinator Jessica Loeper on Sunday.
“We … had a closure on U.S. 74 in Columbus County,” Trogdon said.
According to University of North Carolina system President Margaret Spellings, students who had evacuated from UNC Wilmington were unable to return to campus due to the closed roads.
New Hanover County officials initially said the water utility plant was running out of fuel because of the road closings, potentially affecting health and public safety.
“We’re having some calls about this, but I think most of our residents were prepared not to have water and not to have power for several days,” she said.
‘No immediate threat’ But by early afternoon Sunday, the utility offered a more reassuring picture.
There is no immediate threat to water service disruption.” State officials said efforts are also underway to reach Wilmington through its access to the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean.
“We’re … working other contingencies to support Wilmington on the ocean side,” Trogdon said.
Hospitals and other health-care providers had emergency plans in place and were not reporting problems Sunday, Loeper said.