Severe Wind Chill Tonight | Eastern NC Now

News release:

    Good Morning to All:

    We are going to be visited by one of the sneakiest most dangerous weather events known: Wind Chill near or below zero! Exposed skin can freeze within 10 minutes causing various degrees of frost bite, human sweat can freeze instantly upon the skin or cause layer clothing to be compromised and that leads to Hypothermia: Once a person's body temperature drops to 95 F or below, certain systems in the body begin to experience problems. The heart and nervous system are often not able to function properly in this condition. Because of the serious and potentially fatal complications of these results, hypothermia is considered an emergency medical condition that requires immediate treatment.

    Department Heads, Fire Chiefs and EMS Captains during this 48 hour period, beginning at midnight tonight, the top priority is safety of personnel and I urge you to take all necessary precautions to insure the safety or your personnel: Examples include if necessary: inspection of individuals protective clothing prior to exposure, constant close monitoring of personnel if they are outside and when they come inside, Restricting the amount of exposure time to the frigid conditions and be prepared to provide warming facilities or vehicles for employees on a rotational basis at the scene of emergency work.

    Any remaining wet spots on roads will turn to ice quickly tonight and should we need to fight a fire please request DOT assets to assist with roadway conditions. Communications will be prepared to assist the Incident Commander with extra Mutual Aid units tonight and into early morning. We must not leave motorist tonight along the highway without functional vehicles, the result could be serious injury to those folks. We may need to spend extra time on scenes assisting Highway Patrol Units or Utility Repair Crews so they can concentrate on getting their jobs done and reduce exposure time to all.

    I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous tonight can be to anyone and all domestic animals remaining outside tonight for any period time. All fire departments with generator backup must be prepared to become a temporary shelter should events require. In light of this please take all necessary preventive maintenance actions and have your generators topped off with fuel today. This would be for very short term sheltering, twelve hours or less, of our local neighbors while power is being restored. Do not compromise firefighting or EMS services capabilities and coordinate with the EOC your numbers.

    Should longer duration shelters become necessary we would open: Northside High School, Southside High School and Washington High School as the situation dictates. All necessary actions should be taken for a short notice opening by the appropriate agencies. Beaufort County Public Transport and Beaufort County Schools should be prepared to assist with necessary transport from residence to shelter and back from major affected areas. Beaufort County Animal Control should make all necessary preparations for short notice housing of pets should we be required to open long term shelters.

    We should be prepared for the possibility of power outages during the next forty-eight hour period. A press release will be sent out today with common sense actions on the part of home owners who experience power outages when the temperatures get this cold. Please rest assured power crews will be in a standby mode during this weather event and will respond quickly.

    I am always amazed at how well everyone performs their jobs during times of need and stress here in Beaufort County. The only difference is Hypothermia is a silent killer and frost bite can cause an individual to lose a finger or toe unnecessarily.

    Take Care and thank you for taking the time to read this and for those that wonder why is he so concerned: I spent a six week rotation with the US Army in Alaska investigating Commanders and Enlisted leaders who did not put their troops safety first which resulted in death and serious injuries. We are going from sixty degree temperatures to near zero degrees in less than fifteen hours so try and keep this in perspective.

    John Pack

    Coordinator, Beaufort County Emergency Services

     1420 Highland Drive
     Washington, NC 27889
     (252)946-2046 Office   •   (252) 975-6802 Fax   •   john.pack@co.beaufort.nc.us