The plant is located about 30 miles south of Wilmington, four miles inland from the Atlantic coast. Hurricane Florence pounded North Carolina on Friday, bringing historic amounts of rainfall, destroying buildings, and uprooting trees.

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Blocked roads have prevented crews from entering to relieve the staff inside, and and would make it impossible to leave the ten-mile emergency evacuation zone around the plant if a higher state of emergency were declared, plant staff told the Raleigh News & Observer.

No critical equipment is at risk, and plant staff say that there is currently no threat to public safety. Staff inside received a shipment of food by helicopter on Monday morning, and more is expected by Monday afternoon.

“It’s kind-of like camping,” one said. “Everyone is handling it very well. I haven’t heard any complaining.”

Amid fears of a Fukushima-type disaster, Charlotte-based Duke Energy, the company that runs the plant, shut down the Brunswick facility two weeks ago, as the storm bore down on the east coast. The plant dates from the 1970s and was designed at a time when engineers underestimated the vulnerability of nuclear plants to natural disasters.

However, the plant weathered the storm, and backup diesel generators were never needed to operate essential equipment.

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