RICHMOND — The Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) and Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) will begin closing and demobilizing state-managed shelters at 6 p.m. tonight as the need for hurricane shelters has diminished. Crews will close the shelter at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg at 6 p.m. tonight and will close the shelter at Christopher Newport University in Newport News at noon Sept. 15.
There are no current occupants at the William and Mary shelter. There are 28 occupants currently at the Christopher Newport shelter. At the peak occupancy, there were 52 residents in state-managed shelters. VDSS staff will work to ensure occupants of the Christopher Newport shelter are relocated before the shelter closes tomorrow.
It will take 48 hours to demobilize the shelters. VDEM staff and the private contractors which have managed the shelters are communicating with officials in North and South Carolina to offer resources to assist their emergency managers with shelter needs due to the devastation of Hurricane Florence.
Colonial Beach News 