Nearly a million people have been evacuated from coastal areas in North Carolina, so schools, especially those in and around Wilmington, started closing yesterday and will remain closed until at least next week.
New Hanover County Public Schools, the district that serves Wilmington, announced that it would be closed from September 11 through, at least, September 14:
Hurricane Florence … is expected to impact the Cape Fear region …. Identified NHCS staff, including Senior Staff, principals, custodians, and some others, will be required to work on Tuesday to secure the schools and make preparations throughout the school system. Supervisors will inform employees if they are identified for work tomorrow (9/11/18).
The district is working continually with New Hanover County emergency management officials to monitor this storm and its potential impact on our area. Additional updates will be provided as more information becomes available. In the meantime, everyone is urged to follow the direction of the County emergency officials regarding public safety before, during and immediately after this serious event.
The following NHCS public meetings and activities are all canceled for this week:
- New Hanover County Board of Education meeting scheduled for Tuesday, September 11, 2018, has been canceled.
- New Hanover County Board of Education Redistricting Forum scheduled for Thursday, September 13, 2018, has been canceled.
- All NHCS athletic events, practices and related activities have been canceled.
- Driver’s Ed is canceled from Tuesday, September 11, 2018, until further notice.
Other important information:
NHCS will provide information and updates via Connect5 calls, the NHCS website, and social media sites.
New Hanover County schools that serve as shelters include Trask Middle, Johnson Pre-K, Codington Elementary, Eaton Elementary, and Noble Middle. The New Hanover County Government will announce when shelters will open.
Hurricane Florence isn’t only affecting schools.
Even before the storm made landfall, tens of thousands of people were reportedly without power, according to online updates from Duke Power and the North Carolina Electric Cooperatives. The outages are “the result of gusts coming off Hurricane Florence and knocking trees into power lines,” the Charlotte Observer quoted Lisa Crawley, a spokeswoman for the co-ops as saying.
