The news of Hoke County, North Carolina since 1904
The National Hurricane Center reports the center of Dorian is very close to Cape Fear, N.C. "Hurricane Dorian is centered as of 8 p.m. EDT about 60 miles (95 km) south of Wilmington, N. Carolina. It's moving toward the northeast near 10 mph (17 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue with an increase in forward speed through Saturday. On the forecast track, the center of Dorian will move near or over the coast of North Carolina tonight and Friday."
Sustained winds are at about 100 mph now
At The News-Journal office we have 1.13 inches of rain and wind gusts topping out at 33 mph. Barometer continues to drop, now 29.60
Along the I-95 corridor between 4-8 inches can be expected and 1-4 inches between US 1 and I-95. Minimal impacts will be observed west of Highway 1. Similar story for the expected winds as Max Wind gusts could top 60 mph in the southeast with 30-50 kt gusts between US 1 and I 95. Expect less than 30 mph across the Triad. Max sustained winds could be as high as 40-50 mph in the extreme southeast.
We're seeing daylight again!
Just a few quick updates. First, you can see in-depth coverage about the storm in today's issue of The News-Journal! We're publishing as normal, though issues might hit retailers a little bit later today than usual as our delivery driver has to take a longer route to get to our office. Papers will be mailed out to customers as usual later today.
The power is largely back on in Raeford and Hoke County, with about 1,000people across the county still facing outages, most of them in the southern and eastern areas. If you need to check a specific location, you can use the maps at https://outages.lumbeeriver.com/ or https://www.duke-energy.com/outages/current-outages-m for your service.
As you can see from the map below from NCDOT, the county's roads are steadily improving. Rockfish Road near McLauchlin Lakes, Golf Course Road at Twin Bridges, and Camden Road near the county line are all shut down, but for the most part the major thoroughfares are clear. There may still be some debris in areas, traffic cones blocking eroded pavement, water on the roadway and line crews out and about repairing damage - so drive carefully.
As of yesterday, Hoke County officials were working with the governor's office to have Hoke added to the counties with a FEMA declaration. We'll be following up with this as soon as we have more information.
The county's offices, post office, and most services are back up and running today. Hoke County Schools are closed tomorrow for students with an optional teacher workday for teachers, and we'll let you know as soon as we hear that officials have made a decision about Friday.
The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is now closed, but citizens can call the Emergency Management office at 910-875-4126 for information.
Monday, September 17, 5:25 p.m.
We'll have full coverage of Hurricane Florence and the aftermath in this week's issue of The News-Journal, which will be published Wednesday as usual! http://thenews-journal.com We appreciate everyone's support and we're honored to serve you. We're here throughout the year as well as in times of crisis. If you'd like to help our award-winning work in local journalism, you can subscribe at http://thenews-journal.com/gong/!
Things are slowly beginning to improve in Raeford and Hoke County after Florence, with the sun peeking out for the first time in days. It's not all good: some areas are still experiencing flooding, and there are about 4,500 people in the county still without power, and a number of homes have downed trees on them. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported so far.
The mandatory evacuation order for the McLauchlin Lakes area was canceled this afternoon after a state dam inspector was able to take a look at the Kaco dam. There are no evacuation orders active in the county at this time. Rockfish Road near the dam remains closed.
The Hoke County curfew is also lifted as of today!
We're hearing that water is back on for residents in the Ashley Heights/McCain areas who suffered loss of service yesterday and today due to a generator failing. County officials confirmed that a new generator is in place and service should be restored. Those customers who were affected are under a boil water advisory for the moment - only customers who lost water service need to boil water.
Most of the shelters are shut down now, with Don Steed Elementary remaining open along with the pet shelter for people who evacuated for Florence with their animals. Visit www.readyhoke.org or call the Emergency Operations Center at 910-848-4646 for more information on the shelter.
The roads in Raeford are all back open, and road conditions in lesser-damaged areas of the county are improving. Most of the major roads like U.S. 401 and N.C. 20 are open and clear. N.C. 211 from Raeford to Red Springs was closed at the county line due to high water on the road, but when we went to check on it today, the barricades were moved and people were driving through the water today to cross the road. Please use caution.
There are some roads in the county, particularly the Camden Road/Rockfish Road area, that remain closed. North Old Wire Road is also closed due to flooding. You can find out more about road closures through these websites:
https://tims.ncdot.gov/tims/
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer…
Hoke County Government Offices are open Tuesday, September 18.
Hoke County Schools are closed Tuesday, September 18 and further updates will be posted on their website https://www.hcs.k12.nc.us/ and their Facebook page.
Hoke County Courts appear to be closed Tuesday as well according to this information: https://www.nccourts.gov/closings
If you want to double check tomorrow, call the courthouse at 910-878-4100.
The Raeford Post Office is back open.
All county solid waste sites EXCEPT Antioch are open tomorrow. There's still no power at the Antioch site.
We've just had an announcement from Hoke County Emergency Management regarding evacuations at McLauchlin Lakes.
"Due to the worsening situation with flooding at McLauchlin Lake, Hoke County Emergency Management has requested units from Fort Bragg to respond to residences in the vicinity of Overlake Drive and Shoreline Drive to encourage citizens to voluntarily evacuate. For further information please call the Emergency Operations Center at 910-848-4646."
