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hen the next hurricane approaches, which may be sooner rather than later, many Oriental area residents will have to find a new patch of higher ground for their vehicles. An old standby will not be available.

The Station 19 firehouse on Straight Road, one of the higher spots in Oriental. Because it was a place that would not flood, its parking lot has filled with vehicles as hurricanes approached. But no more.

The Station 19 fire house on Straight Road will be off limits to parking, as will the new Station 19-2 on Orchard Creek Road across from River Dunes.

That’s the word in a “Notification of Parking Changes at Station 19” announced by the Southeastern Pamlico Volunteer Fire Department this week. Captain Ben Barnett says the members of the SPVFD voted in early August to impose the ban on parking during times of emergency, and from the time of a hurricane watch through a hurricane’s arrival.

The fire department wanted to limit parking, its notification said, because, “Station 19 is a staging area, for Fire, EMS, Law Enforcement, the National Guard and a Landing Zone for Emergency helicopters.”

In past hurricanes, such as Arthur in July 2014, vehicles have been parked behind the Oriental fire station. The adjacent field is where helicopters land and take off from when transporting people with medical emergencies. That was cited as one reason to ban hurricane parking at the fire station in the future. The choppers’ prop wash can be felt many yards away from the field.

Only volunteer fire fighters, emergency medical personnel and law enforcement may park on the Station 19 grounds during emergencies such as hurricanes. “Vehicles without proper identification,” the advisory says, “will be towed.”

Existing signage at the fire station. During hurricanes there’ll be a blanket rule: no parking anywhere on those grounds except for volunteer firefighters, emergency medical workers and law enforcement.

Ben Barnett said Monday that over the years, there’d been issues at the fire station as people sought a dry place for their vehicles.

There was the time traffic cones were set out to save parking spaces for firefighters and emergency workers. They were thrown aside and the spaces taken.

Barnett says some people took up spaces with not only their cars but their campers and trailered boats.

After one recent hurricane a car registered to a Lowland resident remained parked in front of the station’s meeting room for weeks after the storm passed. At the new substation near River Dunes, Barnett says, someone parked a motorcycle at the front door which affected coming and going.

The Station 19-2 fire station, on Orchard Creek Road. It officially opened this year. Same rule of no parking on the premises will apply at this site, too.

Neither the fire department nor local governments have the personnel to be on scene to oversee parking, especially as a hurricane nears, says Barnett. Lacking that, the alternative was the all-out ban on parking on the property when an emergency is declared, such as in advance of a hurricane.

The Notification of Parking Changes at Station 19 that was made public this week. While it bars using the fire station parking lot during hurricanes, it saysthat the public can park on the perimeter of the lot when an emergency is not declared or a hurricane is not approaching.

Judging by the many dozens of vehicles parked at Station 19 in past hurricanes, this ban will mean adjusting hurricane prep for many in the area.

One alternative parking spot is within sight of the firehouse, in the two parking lots at Oriental’s rec field. One lot allows pull-in parking on both sides, except where the recycling dumpsters sit. Another dirt road path allows parking on both sides as well. These spaces also filled up in preparation for Irene in 2011.

The Rec Field parking lot has accommodated many cars in past years. With the fire station lot now off limits, it will likely draw more people looking for high enough ground.

Other options, says Barnett, are the parking lots at “Walmart, Dollar General and Town Hall.”

One place where spaces get snapped up quickly is the bridge over Smith and Green Creeks. It’s not the entire bridge that is available. A rule of thumb has been that you can park where the bridge is over land, but not over water.

Ben Barnett, who serves as a part-time policeman in Oriental, offers a bit more precision on the subject. It’s okay, he says, to do your hurricane parking on the bridge so long as your vehicle “is not in the travel way” and stays within the white line of “the roadway shoulder.”

Clearly, Station 19 is not the only high ground in Oriental, but the policy change this week, banning hurricane parking there, will mean more pressure and usage of other high spots in town, such as the Methodist Church parking lot, and some – but not all – parking spaces at the bank. Advance scouting may be in order to seek out still other sites, now, well before any hurricane is bearing down.

Posted Tuesday August 18, 2015 by Melinda Penkava