Starting on Tuesday afternoon Sheriff's Office supervisors, using flood plain maps, identified areas where flooding frequently occurred and could be expected. Deputies were dispatched throughout Pitt County armed with flood warning notices written in English and Spanish for delivery to citizens or posting on homes in those areas.

Sheriff Manning directed each of the three Captains to establish separate field command posts in their respective districts. This proved invaluable as floodwaters rose and cut off major portions of the county from each other. The Sheriff's Office not only carried out it's law enforcement duties under these extreme conditions, it accepted the task of coordinating the largest evacuation and rescue effort ever mounted in the history of Pitt County.

Sheriff's Office personnel worked shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of volunteer firemen, rescue squad members and citizen volunteers who answered Sheriff Manning's call for those with boats and personal watercraft to assist with the massive evacuation effort. The Sheriff's Office also played a major role in coordinating the personnel from state and local law enforcement agencies who responded to Pitt County in mutual aid.