WINDSOR – Water seeping inside Southwestern School has closed a storm shelter.

Bertie County Manager Zee Lamb is reporting that as of 2:30 p.m. Saturday, water was coming inside the school where 21 individuals are seeking shelter from Hurricane Irene. Those individuals have been moved to Bertie Middle School.

Lamb said any other Bertie County citizens who need to seek shelter from the storm and were considering using Southwestern School, they now need to come to the Middle School, located on US 13 north of Windsor across from Bertie High School.

All totaled, 135 Bertie citizens are in storm shelters as of mid-afternoon Saturday. Other than the ones at Southwestern, 69 are seeking shelter at Colerain Elementary School and 42 at West Bertie Elementary School near Kelford.

Lamb also said the water level in the Cashie River is rising. Initially, the river was expected to crest at 10 feet. That number has increased to 12 feet with the crest occurring sometimes during the early part of next week. Flood stage is 8 feet.

Windsor Mayor Jimmy Hoggard reported that water earlier covered portions of King Street (at Bunn’s Barbecue) and Queen Street (at the Windsor Community Building). That was has since receded and none of the structures at those two locations suffered any damage, according to Hoggard.

“For what we’ve had thus far, we’re in pretty good shape. We’ve got a lot of trees down, but town staff is starting to remove them now,” Hoggard said during a 2:30 p.m. interview with the R-C News-Herald.

(R-C News-Herald Staff Writer Thadd White contributed to this story.)