Safety

In New Hanover County, you’ll be well-prepared before and after a storm. Alongside its brand new emergency operations center, the county provides a comprehensive emergency toolkit and an efficient emergency alert system, ensuring timely information and guidance during critical times. Additionally, the county’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trains citizens to keep themselves and their communities self-sufficient for 96 hours following natural disasters, while relieving some of the demand on first responders. This past year, Duke Energy, Wilmington’s primary electric service provider, also buried nearly eight miles of power lines across the county to make it more resistent to outages and more resliant to power restoration. And, the New Hanover County Emergency Management team and the Wilmington Emergency Management Department are active participants in the North Carolina Emergency Management Association.

If you’re looking for a safe place, Wilmington, North Carolina stands as a beacon of inclusivity by welcoming all backgrounds, ethnicities, races, gender identities and sexual orientations. The city’s commitment to fostering a diverse, safe and accepting community is evident through the police chief’s appointment of an LGBTQ+ Liaison. Residents also benefit from resources such as the LGBTQ Center of the Cape Fear Coast, the Wilmington Transgender Community, the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Mohin-Scholz LGBTQIA Resource Center and SEEDS of Healing, which all provide support, advocacy and a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community.