[ad_1]
WILMINGTON, N.C. – Water is ubiquitous – flooding highways, flooding homes and swelling rivers that continue to climb. The rain has stopped falling, but the water remains, the endless water that obstructs the highway, overwhelming gauges intended to measure the rivers, extending in all directions.
"Even though there is no substantial rain in the forecast and the sun is shining, the rivers continue to rise and we will witness more floods," said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper on Tuesday. D).
The storm devastated North Carolina, leaving people stranded at home, stranded to travel, suffocating while waiting for power to come in and water to retreat.
The storm that brought misery to Florence went from a hurricane to a tropical depression in a winding system that dropped rain on the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. She left behind dead people in at least three states and dug a bow of destruction that had not been totally clear, though preliminary analysis indicated it could cost up to $ 20 billion. in material losses.
[Trump preemptively complains about Democratic response to Florence]
Cooper said North Carolina had confirmed the 26th death of the storm, bringing the number of casualties to 33 in the Carolinas and Virginia, including at least three children aged three months to a year.
Florence and her deluge erased the natural outlines of life throughout the state of Tar Heel. Cooper said more than 1,100 roads remained closed Tuesday, including Interstates 95 and 40 and other major routes. Images from Interstate 95 published by the North Carolina Department of Transportation showed the road was flooded near Lumberton, New Mexico, and the department said there was still no safe road to Wilmington on Tuesday.
One of the family homes of Edwin and Megan Curry, exposed Tuesday after the Lumber River in Lumberton, New Mexico, was flooded. Edwin and his wife Megan planned a disaster after being hit hard by Hurricane Matthew two years ago, but they did not expect the waters to be so bad and certainly not so early. (Eamon Queeney / For the Washington Post)
More than 340,000 people were still lacking electrical power, Cooper said. Approximately 10,000 people occupied the state's shelters, while many others sought refuge with family, friends or hotels. Cooper argued for patience, warning the North Carolinians that driving on the roads could be very dangerous.
"I know it was hard to leave the house, and it's even harder to wait and wonder if you even have a house to go back to," he said. "But please, for your safety and the efficiency of our emergency operations, do not try to go home."
William "Brock" Long, the FEMA administrator struggling with growing questions about an investigation into his use of government vehicles, went to North Carolina this week and met with officials who were Congratulated.
"I'm very happy with our position, but I know we still have a long way to go, because this event is not over," Long said at the press briefing with Cooper. in Washington.
Long said the next two days would be critical, adding, "We are aware that this recovery mission will be a great mission." He described North Carolina's response to the storm as a model for others to be on the ground to help them "overcome this blow".
[[[[More headaches than the waters of Florence go beyond toxic pits, pork lagoons]
Cooper said he thought President Trump should surrender on Wednesday, although he noted that such projects could be fluid. The governor also said that he would meet the president during the visit.
The National Meteorological Service said Tuesday that even with the departure from Florence, a stretch of the eastern United States extending hundreds of kilometers between South Carolina and Virginia was still vulnerable to moderate floods or major.
"Hurricane Florence will be one of the largest rainfall events ever recorded in the Carolinas, resulting in catastrophic and widespread flooding," according to the Weather Service. The highest precipitation totals observed were in Elizabethtown, North Carolina, where just under 36 inches – three feet of rain – was reported. Swansboro and Gurganus are both over 30 inches, the service said.
In Fayetteville, city officials reported that the Cape Fear River had reached 59 feet – above the levels of Hurricane Matthew, in reference to the 2016 storm that flooded North Carolina – Tuesday morning and to more than 61 feet. The National Weather Service stated that a reading of the Rocky River range east of Charlotte was not available because the equipment had been damaged by floods and other gauges were damaged by debris or dives under water.
The idling attack in Florence sparked environmental concerns, while public health officials warned that flooding could wreak havoc on septic systems.
[For farmworkers and homeless, Florence has been particularly harsh]
The storm left people unsure of what would happen next. Delores Turner has been waiting for days at Eastbrook Apartments in Wilmington to find out when her lights will turn on, when she can fill her insulin, or how she can keep her meds cool.
Turner, 76, was on his fifth day without electricity and was running out of insulin Tuesday morning. There was heat inside, flies buzzing around a refrigerator containing rotten food.
Turner's daughter was at CVS to try to fill the insulin. Even though she was able to replenish her stock, Turner did not know how she would keep the drug cold. She ran out of ice two days ago. She has not heard of her usual pharmacy about when she will be able to replenish her other medications.
"It seems to me that they would have helped the elderly, but it does not seem to me that they care," said Mr. Turner, holding a fine cloth. She kept her door and windows open, but sometimes used her walker to get to the porch when the apartment became too unbearable.
"I think I would die here without any air," she said. Along the wall, behind the sofa, was a plaque: "Do not leave".
Then a van entered the parking lot with Jay Young at the driver's seat and hot spaghetti containers made of styrofoam. He was coming from Compassion Church in Wilmington after a social worker called Turner to ask for help.
When he entered Turner's apartment and squeezed his hands, his eyes lit up.
Others came out to try to find supplies. Henrietta McKoy stated that she had no power at her home in the Eastbrook Apartment complex, so she and three of her friends performed a caravan Tuesday morning at a food and water distribution site. at Cape Fear Community College.
Tracey Tyson, who was in the car, said that she could not keep her insulin cold and that she had to go to the hospital. Tyson's daughter is six months pregnant but has only been able to eat one meal a day, usually a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Other people in the car did not know what supplies would be available and were hoping for toiletries and cleaning products because they were afraid of infusing mold.
"You come home, it smells like sewers," McKoy said.
McKoy said she was having trouble getting to the distribution center because her friends only wanted to take her away if she had money. She worried that she could not bring supplies back to those who were still in the apartment complex, because other people might think that she was accumulating supplies.
"We are supposed to meet," she said. "It seems that everyone is for themselves and not for others. I was not high like that.
When McKoy's Nissan stopped in front of the distribution line, a worker shouted to ask how many supplies he could deliver between the four households. He was told that the group would only be allowed two things. If they needed more, they should come back tomorrow.
Bob Hayes heard about the cast on the radio and approached the channel. He was told that he could only take a tarpaulin, even if the roofs of his neighbors were leaking. "I'm trying to get a tarp for all," he said. Behind him, a woman dragged a cart carrying her new bounty. "It's a blessing," she said. "I am grateful."
Flood waters flood Tuesday a home in Pembroke, North Carolina. Hurricane Florence left North Carolina, but hundreds of thousands of people are without electricity and road closures have affected 1,500 people because floods have devastated many communities in the state. (Eamon Queeney / For the Washington Post)
In South Carolina, the rain also stopped, but Jess White's problems had barely begun. He lives near a marsh attached to the Waccamaw River that rises just outside Myrtle Beach, S.C., and his six-acre property has been flooded for days. The waters of the thigh have retreated, but he expects them to rise as the river swells, which, according to White, could push a foot of water into his house.
White said he had about two days to evacuate his neighborhood before the floods worsened. He expects to lose his home, which has been in the family for three generations; he does not have flood insurance, he said, because he could not afford it.
"He's coming back," said White, 42, who lives in Conway, a community of rooms northwest of the tourist town of Myrtle Beach. "It will move my families. It's going to be a mess.
The floods will also affect people who have prepared this week for Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, which begins Tuesday night and continues on Wednesday.
Carla Byrnes, president of Temple B'nai Sholem, said the synagogue would be closed for the holidays in New Bern, North Carolina, where hundreds of evacuations took place. Of the approximately 110 worshipers from five surrounding counties, two-thirds had been evacuated, Byrnes said, while the temple itself had no electricity.
Mr. Byrnes indicated that all remaining members of the congregation should instead travel to Greenville for services during the holidays, which is known as the day of atonement.
"I think God will forgive us," said Byrnes.
Phillips reported from Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Berman reported from Washington.
[ad_2]
Source link
