[ad_1]
A new series of evacuations was ordered in South Carolina, as trillions of liters of water discharged by Hurricane Florence swept the sea, raising river levels and threatening further destruction.
With the crisis moving slowly to South Carolina, emergency management officials on Friday ordered approximately 500 people to flee homes along the Lynches River. The National Meteorological Service said the river could reach record levels of flooding late Saturday or early Sunday and that shelters are open.
Downstream officials sounded terrible alarms, signaling the destruction of property and the environmental disasters left by Florence.
"We are at the end of the dividing line," said Sel Hemingway, Georgetown County Administrator, who warned that the region could see a flood like it has never seen it before.
In North Carolina, a familiar story unfolded as many places flooded by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 were once again flooded.
Two years ago, floods destroyed baseboard skirting and rugs in the Presbyterian Church of the Alliance at Spring Lake. The congregation has been rebuilt. This year, the water from the Little River broke the windows, leaving the benches as a mess and soaked bibles and hymnbooks on the floor.
"I'm so sad to think about all the work we've done." My instinct goes up, "said Dennis DeLong, a member of the church. "We put a lot of heart and soul into the refurbishment."
The Governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, estimated at $ 1.2 billion the damage caused by the flood in his country. McMaster asked congressional leaders to dispatch federal aid.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said he knew the damage in his state would amount to billions of dollars, but with the effects of the storm, it was impossible to make a larger estimate. precise.
Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center said it was monitoring four areas of the Atlantic for signs of a new tropical meteorological threat. One was located off the Carolinas and was likely to drift to the coast.
About 55,000 households and businesses remain without electricity after Florence, almost all in North Carolina, and more than 900,000 in three states.
Florence is responsible for at least 42 deaths in the Carolinas and Virginia, including that of an 81-year-old man whose body was found in a submerged van in South Carolina. More than half of the dead were killed in vehicles.
Potential environmental problems remained. Duke Energy issued a high-level emergency alert after the floodwaters of the Cape Fear River overflowed from a land embankment and flooded a large lake in a closed power plant near Wilmington. in North Carolina. The utility said it did not think that coal ash was in danger.
State Corporation Santee Cooper, South Carolina, installs an inflatable dam around a coal ash pond near Conway, claiming that the extra 2.5 feet (76 centimeters) should be enough to prevent flooding. Authorities have warned humans, pigs and other animal waste to mingle with the Carolinas floodwaters.
In Wilmington, things kept getting closer to normal in the largest coastal city of the state. Officials announced the end of the curfew and the resumption of regular garbage collection.
But they said that access to the city of 120,000 people was still limited and asked the evacuees to wait a few more days. They also warned people not to be caught off guard because the rivers that had briefly retreated came back periodically.
The storm continues to severely hamper movement. Sections of the north-south route of the east coast, Interstate 95, and the main road to Wilmington, Interstate 40, remain flooded and are likely to be closed until the end of September. I said.
More than a thousand other roads connecting major highways to neighborhood roads are closed in the Carolinas, officials said. Some of them were completely washed away.
The flood gave so much warning to Horry County, South Carolina, that officials released a detailed map of the flooded places in 2016 and warned that these same places were again under the roof. 39; water. A man had time to build a 1.8 meter high earthen berm around his house.
The Waccamaw River has started its slow rise in the city of 23,000 inhabitants and forecasters predict that it will increase more than 3 meters (0.90 meters) above Tuesday's record high, while continuing to increase. Some areas may remain under water for weeks, forecasters warned.
—
Derosier was reported at Spring Lake. Associated Press editors, Jonathan Drew, Martha Wagoner and Gary D. Robertson, Raleigh; Jeffrey Collins and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; Michael Biesecker in Washington and Jay Reeves in Atlanta contributed to this report.
—
To learn more about Hurricane Florence, visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/Hurricanes.
Source link
