Kinston city officials preparing for flooding post Debby

KINSTON, N.C. (WNCT) — With Debby making landfall this week along the East Coast, many communities across Eastern NC are now preparing for possible flooding.

Firefighters in Kinston are on high alert as Interim Kinston Fire Chief Chad Jackson said about 60 citizens were without power due to storm-related events.

“Yesterday, during the bulk of the storm, we ran approximately 13 calls for service, five of which those were storm-related,” Jackson said.

He said power was restored quickly and overall, the city has not been impacted too badly by Debby. That being said, he said Kinston could see major flooding next week.

“All of the department heads are being briefed by us daily on what the river levels are expected to be,” Jackson said. “We’re making sure that all of our assets like the boat, our high water vehicle, are ready to go and we’re going to be monitoring it, making sure that if anything drastic was to change, we’re ready to respond.”

He said no shelters in Lenoir County are open at this time but depending on how bad conditions get in the coming days, that could change.

“Lenoir County Emergency Management Office is very quick to open a shelter when the conditions dictate, and we’ll get those people there if need be,” Jackson said.

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