State picks up pieces as storm blows over
RESIDENTS IN Wilmington lined up by the hundreds for free food and water as officials struggled to open new routes to one of North Carolina’s largest cities following Storm Florence.
The death toll from the storm rose to at least 32 in three states, with 25 fatalities in North Carolina, as remnants of the once-powerful Category 4 hurricane – now reduced to a rainy, windy mass of low pressure – dumped rain on the heavily populated north-east region.
In Wilmington, population 120,000, workers began handing out supplies using a system that resembled a fast-food restaurant drive-through. Drivers pulled up to pallets lining a street, placed an order and left without having to get out.
Todd Tremain needed tarpaulins to cover up spots where Florence’s winds ripped shingles off his roof. “The roof is leaking, messing up the inside of the house,” he said.
Others got a case of bottled water or military MREs – or field rations. An olive-green military forklift moved around huge pallets loaded with supplies.
Four days after Florence blew ashore and began unloading more than 2ft of rain that paralysed much of North Carolina, Wilmington was still virtually cut off from the rest of the state, with just one road tentatively open as a supply route.
Officials said they will open roads as flooding recedes and downed trees and power lines are cleared away. It is not clear when that might happen.