North Carolina Department of Correction news release
State prisoners clean up coast after Hurricane Bonnie
AUGUST 31, 1998
State prisoners are hard at work across coastal and eastern North Carolina today cleaning up debris in communities and helping tobacco farmers after Hurricane Bonnie blew through last week.
Prison managers have been working with Emergency Management and Agriculture Department officials to put the prisoners to work where they are needed the most. Today, 79 crews are at work. Forty are helping communities in their clean up efforts.
In Hyde County, prisoners are at the Board of Education building removing carpet destroyed in the storm. Other crews from the Hyde Correctional Center have helped pick up downed limbs and cleared debris in Bath and New Holland.
Three Pasquotank Correctional Institution work crews are working with Forestry and Transportation employees to clear downed tree limbs on Knotts Island. Another four squads are at Wedgewood Park in Currituck County loading downed tree limbs onto DOT trucks. Two squads at Bells Island are working with DOT truck crews to clean up downed tree limbs. Two squads in Hertford are helping city workers remove debris and fallen limbs. In Pasquotank County, four squads are working with DOT crews to remove debris. Two squads in Camden County and one at Kitty Hawk picking up fallen limbs and debris.
New Hanover Correctional Center crews are removing sand from Carolina Beach streets, loading debris onto trucks at Kure Beach and removing downed limbs and debris at a New Hanover County park. A Robeson Correctional Center crew is picking up debris in Wilmington parks. Crews from Bladen Youth Center are loading limbs onto a truck at Yaupon Beach, picking up limbs at Boiling Springs Lake and loading fallen limbs onto trucks at Calabash
The prison work crews are helping communities in Beaufort, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Currituck, Dare, Hyde, New Hanover, Onslow, Pasquotank, Pender and Perquimans counties today.
Another 39 prison work crews are helping tobacco farmers. Bonnie’s winds flattened tobacco plants in the fields at harvest time. Row by row, prisoners have helped upright fallen plants so harvesters can gather the leaf. Agriculture officials are directing work crews to the farms. The state is able to offer the assistance as part of Governor Hunt’s State of Emergency declaration.
Prison work crews are helping farmers in Cumberland, Halifax, Harnett, Edgecombe, Johnston, Robeson, Wake and Wilson counties.
Correction employees have put prisoners to work every day since Hurricane Bonnie moved through North Carolina. Prisoner work crews from Caldwell, Catawba and Wilkes correctional centers are being sent to Pasquotank Correctional Institution today to help northeastern North Carolina communities in clean up efforts. Prison work crews from Dan River Prison Work Farm are being sent to Carteret and Neuse correctional centers to continue clean up efforts.
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