As Tropical Storm Debby moves along coastal Georgia and South Carolina, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued a state of emergency late Monday.
The order activates the State Emergency Operations Plan and allows for the NCDOT and NC Department of Public Safety to take the appropriate action to help movement of utility vehicles to restore power outages, as well as vehicles carrying essential supplies such as food, medicine and fuel or transporting livestock, poultry and crops.
Cooper told WECT that flooding is the main concern.
"I don't think this will be a big wind event for North Carolina, but we're going to be on the ready," he said.
Current forecasts call for the worst of the storm effects to begin in North Carolina on Thursday. State emergency officials are urging residents to prepare now and visit ReadyNC.gov for updated information.
