By all accounts, it has been the worst storm to hit the area in eight years. Five days later, its aftermath is still being felt.

Hundreds remain without power in the area and scores of contractors are working to get power restored.

“This is the second largest restoration in Dominion's history,” said company spokesman Greg Edwards. “The only one we had more outages was Isabel in 2003.”

Companywide, Dominion had 1.8 million customers without power in 2003. Irene caused 1.2 million outages. “Weldon and Roanoke Rapids really had the worst damage.”

Edwards said Dominion had a good idea Irene was going to be a major storm that would cause major damage and had 7,000 crews on standby to deal with the aftermath throughout its coverage area.

While Dominion says it had good predictions the enormity of the storm is still baffling to county officials. “I think what happened is we got the amount of the rain that was expected. The wind is really what got us,” said Dia Denton, assistant Halifax County manager for operations.

Roanoke Rapids Public Works on Seventh Street during the storm.

Disaster officials, Denton said, described Irene as a wind event. “I've never seen so many trees down. Trees fell on houses, power lines and sheds.”

Nonetheless, Halifax County was prepared, Denton said. One of the biggest obstacles the county had to overcome was fueling vehicles because plan A failed when the power went out at the county's fueling center on Highway 301 and then plan B failed when power went out with the anticipated company. Plan C was fueling at the Oasis at the Highway 903 and Interstate 95 intersection, which used a generator. “We got all our vehicles fueled up and they closed. We didn't have any vehicles run out of gas.”

What surprised Denton, who served as public information officer for the county during the storm, was its length. “It was the slowest storm ever.”

Denton fully expects damage estimates to be at or surpass the million dollar mark. “We're working on those figures now.”

Weldon businessman Bill Blackwell, who lives in Roanoke Rapids, said in talking to one of the Dominion scouts, he asked the question on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad this storm was. “Her response was a 30.”

While the storm damaged the roof at his Rivertown Tire, Blackwell said, “It didn't alter our business model or what we do.”

Blackwell expects the storm have long term effects on the area's economy. “Folks are going to have to spend money on repairs rather than goods or services.”

Cleanup inside the Evangalestic Church of Deliverance.

Sergeant R.E. Dudley of the state Highway Patrol, said troopers answered 48 service calls Saturday, nine of them wrecks and the others road hazards. “There were a lot of trees down, a lot of wrecks, a lot of people struck trees that had fallen but there were no fatalities.”

Roanoke Rapids Interim Police Chief Jeff Hinton, who served as incident commander during the storm, also said the winds floored everyone. “Trees started dropping like toothpicks. That's the part that took everyone by surprise.”

Hinton believes there was more inland damage than coastal damage. “It's been difficult on every body as far as losing power. The guys at public works and DOT lost their power, too.”

Hinton believes the storm could have been far worse if it had not been for the efforts of the city's fire department and public works department. “The public works guys were out all day Saturday in the storm trying as hard as they could to keep roads from being closed. They stayed out in the storm keeping roads clear. I think if it wasn't for them and the fire department it could have been a lot worse.”