Gov. Bev Perdue declared a State of Emergency effective Saturday for 33 eastern North Carolina counties in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy’s presence off the coast of the state tomorrow. This morning, the National Hurricane Center issued a Tropical Storm Watch for most of the North Carolina coast. A tropical storm watch is in effect from Nags Head to the South Carolina border.
 “This is a large storm with a lot of energy and its effects are likely to be felt along our coast and throughout eastern counties,” Perdue said. “People should not be fooled by the category 1 status. Folks need to take this storm seriously and be ready.”
The governor’s proclamation authorizes officials to respond more effectively to the emergency by authorizing additional state government resources to assist county and municipal governments. Under the proclamation, the governor has expanded powers to address all aspects of the emergency, including the authority to use state resources needed to respond to the situation. Perdue activated the State Emergency Operations Center beginning Saturday morning to prepare for and respond to the storm.
The governor also encouraged her fellow North Carolinians to be prepared for Hurricane Sandy possibly hitting the state late Saturday or early Sunday.
“Our state’s veteran emergency management team is ready for Sandy, but coastal North Carolinians need to be just as prepared. Please make sure you have extra food, water and supplies on hand in case you lose water or electrical power during and after the storm,” Perdue said.
“This is not your typical hurricane that moves through the state in 12 to 24 hours,” cautioned Doug Hoell, state emergency management director.  “Folks in eastern North Carolina will likely feel the effects of Hurricane Sandy beginning tonight and continuing through Tuesday.”
 The latest hurricane center advisory projects tropical storm force winds and rain from Hurricane Sandy will begin later tonight and continue through Tuesday. Rainfall amounts will be greatest east of U.S. 17, where 4 to 6 inches of rain or more are possible. Areas further inland can expect 2 to 3 inches of rain with up to 5 inches in some spots. Steady winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour with gusts up to 60 mph are expected in coastal counties from Saturday through Monday, while inland counties as far as the Triangle can expect winds of 15 to 25 miles per hour with gusts up to 35 mph during the same time frame. Dangerous rip currents and heavy surf with 18-22 foot waves off the Outer Banks are expected between Friday and Tuesday. Officials are also cautioning coastal residents to be prepared for storm surge of 1 to 5 feet above ground level along the Inner and Outer Banks, particularly along the lower Neuse River and Pamlico Sound. Storm surges of 1 to 3 feet above ground level are possible along the southern coast.
 For more information, visit www.readync.org or www.ncdps.gov. Follow NC Emergency Management on Facebook and Twitter.
DOT preparations
As Hurricane Sandy churns closer to the North Carolina coast, the N.C. Department of Transportation is making preparations to ensure it is ready to respond. Crews are checking their equipment to make sure it is working properly, topping off their fuel tanks and reviewing their routes prior to the storm’s arrival.
 NCDOT has front end loaders, motor graders and bulldozers staged along N.C. 12 in Ocracoke, Rodanthe and Pea Island, south of the Bonner Bridge.  This equipment is in addition to the equipment already at the maintenance yards in Manteo, Ocracoke and Buxton.  NCDOT has more equipment ready to mobilize if needed, as well as employees prepared to patrol N.C. 12 during and after the storm.
 At this time, no mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for Dare or Hyde counties and all ferry service is running according to the regular schedule.  NCDOT has moved the larger 180-foot ferries closer to Hatteras in case an emergency ferry route is needed once the storm passes.
 NCDOT is also providing real-time information about travel conditions through its Twitter feeds. As the storm approaches, the department will send out tweets about road closures, flooding, ferry cancellations and evacuation routes. There are feeds for the northern coastal region, the southern coastal region and the ferry system. A list of NCDOT’s 18 Twitter feeds is available at www.ncdot.gov/travel/twitter.
  Travel information is also available through the department’s other social media tools – Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
 Here is a list of resources on the NCDOT website:
·         http://tims.ncdot.gov/tims/default.aspx
·         511, the state’s toll-free traffic line: http://www.ncdot.gov/travel/511/default.html
·         Safe driving tips: http://www.ncdot.gov/travel/safetytips/default.html
·         Hurricane evacuation tips and maps: http://www.ncdot.gov/travel/evacuationmaps/default.html
·         Ferry information: http://www.ncdot.gov/ferry/
 
Earlier today:
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Hurricane Sandy raged through the Bahamas early today after leaving 29 people dead across the Caribbean, following a path that could see it blend with a winter storm to hit the U.S. East Coast with a super-storm next week.
This morning, had maximum sustained winds near 80 mph.
A new tropical storm watch was issued early today for a section of the
U.S. East Coast extending from Savannah, Ga., northward to North
Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Sandy was expected to remain a hurricane almost until reaching the U.S. shoreline, probably early Tuesday.
In Rowan County, the National Weather Service warns that windy conditions are possible Monday and Tuesday, depending on the storm’s path up the American coast.
Freezing temperatures are also possible Monday and Tuesday nights as cold air moves south. Dry and windy conditions could also heighten the threat of fire.
Sandy knocked out power, flooded roads and cut off islands in the storm-hardened Bahamas as it swirled past Cat Island and Eleuthera, but authorities reported no deaths in the scattered archipelago.
“Generally people are realizing it is serious,” said Caroline Turnquest, head of the Red Cross in the Bahamas, who said 20 shelters were opened on the main island of New Providence.
Sandy, which weakened to a category 1 hurricane Thursday night, caused havoc in Cuba Thursday, killing 11 people in eastern Santiago and Guantanamo provinces as its howling winds and rain toppled houses and ripped off roofs. Authorities said it was Cuba’s deadliest storm since July 2005, when category 5 Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people and caused $2.4 billion in damage.
Sandy also killed one person while battering Jamaica on Wednesday and 16 in Haiti, where heavy rains from the storm’s outer bands caused flooding in the impoverished and deforested country. Police in the Bahamas said a 66-year-old man died after falling from his roof in upscale Lyford Cay late Thursday while trying to repair a window shutter.
Government officials in the Bahamas said the storm seems to have inflicted the greatest damage on Exuma, where there were reports of downed trees, power lines and damage to homes.
With the storm projected to hit the Atlantic coast early Tuesday, there was a 90 percent chance that most of the U.S. East Coast would get steady gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain and maybe snow starting Sunday and stretching past Wednesday, U.S. forecaster Jim Cisco said.
In the Bahamas, power was out on Acklins Island and most roads there were flooded, government administrator Berkeley Williams said.
On Ragged Island in the southern Bahamas, the lone school was flooded.
“We have holes in roofs, lost shingles and power lines are down,” said Charlene Bain, local Red Cross president. “But nobody lost a life, that’s the important thing.”
Steven Russell, an emergency management official in Nassau, said docks on the western side of Great Inagua island had been destroyed and the roof of a government building was partially ripped off.
Sooner Halvorson, a 36-year-old hotel owner from Colorado who recently moved to the Bahamas, said she and her husband, Matt, expected to ride out the storm with their two young children, three cats, two dogs and a goat at their Cat Island resort.
“We brought all of our animals inside,” she said, though she added that a horse stayed outside. “She’s a 40-year-old horse from the island. She’s been through tons of hurricanes.”
In an announcement at the end of Cuba’s Thursday night newscast, Cuban authorities said the island’s 11 dead included a 4-month-old boy who was crushed when his home collapsed and an 84-year-old man in Santiago province.
There were no reports of injuries at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but there were downed trees and power lines, said Kelly Wirfel, a base spokeswoman. Officials canceled a military tribunal session scheduled for Thursday for the prisoner charged in the 2000 attack on the Navy destroyer USS Cole.
In Haiti, Joseph Edgard Celestin, a spokesman for the civil protection office, said the country’s death toll stood at 16, including some who died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in southwestern Haiti. He did not provide specifics of how other people died.
Officials reported flooding across Haiti, where many of the 370,000 people still displaced by the devastating 2010 earthquake scrambled for shelter. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from 11 quake settlements, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Sandy was blamed for the death of an elderly man in Jamaica.