Dozens of shelters open across Hampton Roads

More than two dozen shelters were reported open in South Hampton Roads on Saturday, with as many as 200-plus at a single shelter and just a handful or even none at others.

In some cities, shelters that opened Friday had higher numbers of people than those with Saturday openings. Chesapeake didn’t fit that model, though. All four of its school shelters opened Friday night, but the bulk of people were camping out in Oscar Smith High School by late Saturday morning. About 150 people took refuge in the school, while about 80 others were spread between the other school shelters.

“There are some neighborhoods in that (Oscar Smith High) area that are lower lying,” said Heath Covey , a Chesapeake spokesperson.

Norfolk’s seven shelters also opened Friday night . By about 2:30 p.m., 555 people had evacuated to them. Norview High School had 187 people, followed by Granby High with about 139. There were no evacuees, however, at Norfolk’s Brambleton Community Center.

Norfolk State University approached the city Friday to operate the center as an emergency shelter to specifically assist residents of Spartan Village, which has a history of flooding. The city agreed and Friday evening, Norfolk Police officers went door-to-door alerting residents about the shelter, said Lori Crouch, a Norfolk spokesperson.

“The city did its due diligence to make certain they were notified,” she said.

Some cities, including Chesapeake and Suffolk, also are providing shelter for pets, and many are operating shelters dedicated to people with special medical needs.

People with medical issues who show up at Portsmouth’s advertised shelters are being redirected to Lakeview Elementary, said Portsmouth spokesperson Dana Woodson.

In Virginia Beach, people with medical needs, including their family members, can go to Salem High School, which is equipped with nursing staff. The center can help people who need things like a refrigerator for their medication and air conditioning because of respiratory issues, said Erin Sutton of the Virginia Beach Health Department.

By about 2 p.m., 65 people had evacuated to Salem High, though the school can take on 300, said Caryl Thompson, a Virginia Beach spokesperson. It was a similar story in other Virginia Beach shelters, which held nowhere near the number of evacuees they have capacity for.

But by early afternoon, in some places it didn’t matter much whether shelters had capacity. Some city spokespeople were already telling residents they should nix any plans of heading to a shelter now.

“The time to get to the shelter has passed,” said Marc Davis, a Virginia Beach spokesperson. “If you’re not at the shelter, don’t go. Conditions are pretty awful.”

The Virginia Department of Emergency Management says more than 4,000 people were in nearly 80 shelters operated by local governments as of about 8:50 p.m. Saturday, according to The Associated Press. There are no state managed shelters at this time.

Find a list of local shelters here.