Severe weather forces some closures

Published 8:31 pm Thursday, September 2, 2010

You couldn’t blame area students and workers for looking ahead to the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend. But thanks to the arrival of Hurricane Earl in the mid-Atlantic, some were getting an unexpected, and maybe unwanted, extra day.

From schools and businesses to governmental agencies and colleges, the projected severe tropical weather had forced some to close, while others decided to remain open.

“At this point, there are no scheduled closings, but everything is subject to change,” Suffolk spokesperson Debbie George said of city offices and services. Earlier Thursday, the city announced severe weather would not cause any changes in the city’s trash pick-up schedule.

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George did say the city would reconsider remaining open and would close if the weather became a danger to employees and visitors. She said the city would continue to provide updates on its website, Facebook fan page, municipal television channel and through media outlets.

The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce announced it had cancelled the “Dialogue with Congressman Forbes” that had been scheduled for Friday morning in Chesapeake. The meeting was designed as a discussion involving the proposed closure of Joint Forces Command. No new date was announced for the meeting.

Old Dominion University announced it would close classes beginning Thursday night and that they would remain closed through Friday. As of Thursday evening, Saturday’s home football game was to continue as scheduled.

Tidewater Community College closed all Friday operations at all locations, but normal hours were planned to resume on Saturday, according to spokesperson Laurie White.

Locally, First Baptist Christian School, Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and Paul D. Camp Community College did not plan to close. But all three said they would announce any changes through their websites or alert systems.

“As we’ve been monitoring the incoming storm, we had no indication that the weather will be bad enough to close the buildings in our service area,” Paul D. Camp Community College spokesperson Wendy Harrison said.

According to Suffolk Public School officials, the inclement weather was not going to interfere with the start of classes, set to resume next Tuesday.

Updates to this story can be found at www.suffolknewsherald.com.