The original item was published from September 22, 2023 9:36 AM to September 22, 2023 9:39 AM
Good morning, Team Norfolk, and happy first day of early voting! Best of luck to our Registrar Stepanie Iles and her team! Since early voting is only available 9-5, M-F, flooding/weather should not be an impediment for anyone working or voting at the Elections Office today.
The morning brief was recently received from the NWS and is available here for you to review.
When reviewing the Tide Chart for Sewell’s Point, there is a slight departure from yesterday in that we are not seeing two consecutive high tides at the 6’ and higher range. At present, while this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon’s high tides (both peak at 3 pm) will bring water onto the roadways, it is the 3 am overnight high tide still well up in the 6.4 range, just shy of “Major” flooding. Request for Ray Stoner: I believe this 6.4’ level meets the threshold for Phase II or even III. Requesting additional parking support.
Public Works reports the swing gate (pedestrian gate) downtown is scheduled to be closed at 12 noon today. The Mason Creek flood gate will be closed at 10 am today. Staff are monitoring the other gates and will close if necessary. To be sure, they are prepared to deal with this event with staff and equipment. Hand crews, rod crews, vactor trucks, and fully staffed pump station crew are all working today. They will also have crews scheduled with more on-call around the clock until further notice.
Winds should start picking up now and throughout the day with gusts reaching the mid- to upper 40 mph range overnight. Rain is expected to arrive this afternoon and we are now forecasted to see 4-6” of rainfall.
As previously mentioned, these winds have the potential to bring down tree limbs, etc., and the Parks & Forestry Bureau is also staffed and ready to respond (when safe to do so!).
Sage advise from Ms. Shevonne Morgan-Glover, Assistant Director and Acting Fleet Manager who recommends vehicles be fueled to capacity ahead of any potential fueling/pump issues over the weekend should they occur.
Likewise, Terri Doane is known to encourage us all to charge our devices before any potential outages occur.
We are scheduled to have another conference call with NWS/VDEM today at 1 pm.
As always, please reach out with any questions/concerns and we’ll keep you posted when we receive any new information.
Thanks!
Jim Redick