WINDSOR – For the second time in 16 days, the Cashie River is expected to overflow its banks and cause flooding in portions of downtown Windsor.

Meanwhile, Bertie County officials are preparing for the worst case scenario, not only in Windsor, but countywide.

On Friday, the National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the Cashie River. The river is expected to rise above flood stage (8.0 feet) by Sunday early afternoon and continue to rise to near 10.7 feet by Monday evening.

It was noted in the NWS report that at 10.0 feet (which is labeled as moderate flooding), portions of Granville Street, King Street, and Queen Street, to include the Liverman Park Zoo, are expected to be impacted by the floodwaters. Business and residential property owners in those areas are still in the recovery/repair mode from when the Cashie River crested at 15.0 feet on Friday, Sept. 23 following three days of heavy rain that measured up to 18 inches in some portions of Bertie County.

“North Carolina Emergency Management has advised us here in Bertie County that we could experience rainfall and flooding equal to or worse than what we experienced countywide back on Sept. 23,” said Bertie County Manager Scott Sauer early Friday afternoon after emerging from an emergency meeting.

“We’re worried this time around because the ground is still saturated and now we’re facing a forecast that calls for more heavy rain beginning Friday night, through all of Saturday and possibly into Sunday morning,” Sauer added. “That was the purpose of the meeting we just had (on Friday); we are preparing for what appears to be another flooding event across our county.”

The culprit this time is the outer rain bands from Hurricane Matthew. Even though that storm is expected to turn out to sea somewhere along the South Carolina coast after causing major damage there as well as Georgia, Matthew is so big that its outer bands will dump heavy rain across much of eastern North Carolina. The NWS is forecasting 7-to-10 inches, perhaps more, in parts of Bertie County. Five to seven inches is in the forecast for Hertford, Gates and Northampton counties. Those areas were placed in a Flash Flood Watch beginning Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon.

“One of our biggest challenges from the last flooding event was evacuating residents of the Windsor House (nursing home) because most of the patients there are bed-bound and we had to evacuate them by boat,” Sauer stated.

He said in order to prevent that re-occurrence, Windsor House residents were evacuated on Friday.

“(Bertie) Sheriff (John) Holley requested on Friday that we take steps now to evacuate those in low-lying areas of the county, such as the Longbranch community in Colerain and the flood-prone areas in and around Windsor,” Sauer said.

A storm shelter opened Friday night at Bertie High School.

“Even though we are not expecting the flooding to become a major issue until Saturday afternoon and evening, if folks want to evacuate now and head to the shelter, they are urged to do so,” Sauer noted. “We want to take proactive and preventive steps this time around.”

Sauer encouraged local residents to heed any and all warnings posted during this storm and to seek higher ground immediately in the event the water begins rising in the areas in which they live.

He also advised Bertie citizens not to drive a vehicle across flooded roads.

All citizens of the Roanoke-Chowan area, especially those in low-lying areas, need to pay close attention to rising waters prompted by this weekend’s projected heavy rains. They are also advised to exercise extreme caution when driving as roads will be covered with water in some spots.

(Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald Staff Writer Jennipher Dickens contributed to this story.)