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Irene: Day 3
Post-Irene Photos From Monday, August 29
August 30, 2011

S
cenes from Oriental on Monday, August 29.


The beginnings of the debris piles that showed up across town. This one, near the Town Dock on Hodges Street. The “OK” spray painted on the side of the propane tank means a crew came thru and checked its valve.
The South Avenue landscape changes yet again. In foreground a remaining splinter of a cedar tree that was destroyed in Irene. Further down the street is the 10 foot high stump remaining from the oak that stood near an artesian well. It was sawed down last fall.
On South Avenue Monday morning, a sign of some infrastructure uncoiling.
A stairway came free from the back door of Jane and Keith Crisco’s home on South Avenue. The chain link fence also gave way.
On the South Avenue side of Keith and Jane Crisco’s home, insulation set free by the hurricane’s winds, was caught by the chain link fence.
Part of the survival gear, post-Irene. A black plastic pump-up pressure sprayer put in to service as a solar-heated shower. Filled in the morning and set out in the sun all day, it provided hot water for showers at night, no small thing when the power — and electric water heater —- had been out for almost 3 days in Oriental’s Old Village. (At left is part of a 50 foot tree that fell across the yard.)

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With refrigerators lagging because of the lack of electric power, ice became very important. It was trucked in and given away at the fire station on Straight Road outside of Oriental as well as at other fire stations around the county.
Brian Turner’s parents live near Oriental and on Sunday night, he drove down from his ice plant in Raleigh with 1200 bags of ice for the Station 19 volunteer firefighters to give away. Word got out slowly — a firetruck crew drove through town and with a loudspeaker announced the ice availability. They finally gave it all away at 9p.
Keith Sexton, a volunteer with the Southeastern Pamlico Volunteer Fire Department (aka – Station 19) directs traffic in to the firestation lot on Monday afternoon. They were giving away bags of ice — to keep refrigerators cold during the electric outage — and bottles of water — during the boil water advisory.
Members of Oriental’s volunteer fire department, give away bags of ice donated by Greater Raleigh Refrigeration and Ice on Sunday night.
The end of a long day.

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They came in a convoy and set to work in tandem on the poles that had fallen over or needed replacing on Highway 55 between Kershaw Road and the Spruill farm. This was the main line and necessary to restore before individual circuits could be lit.
A lineman with Smith Electric Company of Shelby, NC prepares to go up in the bucket at the corner of Hwy 55 and Kershaw Road.
Highway 55
Once the poles for the main lines were restored — along the right hand side of 55 going west — the subcontracting crew from Smith Electric Company of Shelby addressed a supporting pole across 55 at the corner of Kershaw Road.
Once the lines were back up on new or straightened out poles, the job was to make sure they were straight. A lineman stands in a field near Hwy 55 and Kershaw Road holding a plumb line. Other linemen then adjusted the tension on a line that was strung over Hwy 55 from one pole to another.
Orchard Creek Road Monday afternoon between River Dunes and the town of Pamlico. No warning that there were any downed wires ahead.

Posted Tuesday August 30, 2011 by Melinda Penkava


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