WINTON – Aid and assistance, those were the two key items Hertford County needed in the wake of Hurricane Isabel. Those &uot;keys&uot; to recovery have arrived.

By Tuesday of this week, the county was home to a small army of state and federal agencies, all combining their efforts to help local citizens and businesses get back on their feet after Mother Nature threw her best punch at northeastern North Carolina.

&uot;Hurricane Floyd swamped us with rain back in 1999, but Hurricane Isabel was an animal of a much different nature,&uot; said Charles Jones, Director of Hertford County Emergency Services. &uot;Floyd hurt us, but Isabel knocked us to our knees. The damage is widespread throughout the county.&uot;

While the county citizens were tracking Isabel’s path towards the North Carolina coast last week, Jones and his staff were making plans to rally outside sources to the county following the storm. Less than 36 hours after Isabel passed, those outside sources of aid and assistance were on their way to Hertford County.

Not counting the county employees working nearly non-stop in the storm recovery effort, Hertford County has witnessed an influx of help from the NC Department of Transportation, the NC Forest Service, NC Department of Corrections, Salvation Army, American Red Cross, NC Probation and Parole, ALE, NC Highway Patrol and the NC National Guard. An official with FEMA was assigned to the county earlier this week, hopefully paving the way for that federal agency to open a Disaster Relief Center during the next few weeks.

Hertford County EMS has also received help from New Hanover County EMS.

&uot;We appreciate all the help from the state and federal agencies,&uot; noted Jones. &uot;But I have to signal out the fantastic job our local volunteer fire departments right here in Hertford County have performed over the past five days in meeting the needs of the citizens in their respective communities. Those guys went the extra mile, putting in long hours away from their families and even putting off assessing damages to their own homes, in order to help their friends and neighbors. They, along with the services rendered by our local law enforcement and rescue squads, are the real heroes in all of this.&uot;