Tribulations for Carolinas
Florence is gone, but challenges remain for those hit by the storm and the subsequent flooding.
It will not be easy drying out, fixing up and rethinking whole ways of life in a region drenched and deeply shaken by more than 8 trillion gallons of rain.
But that is the challenge facing the Carolinas after Hurricane Florence and a wearying week of heroic rescues, hard choices, potential environmental crises — including a dam breach on Friday that allowed coal ash to seep into a river — and a vast response that is still unfolding.
The storm and its subsequent flooding have already killed at least 42 people. The threats have not abated, particularly in South Carolina’s low-lying coastal plain, where the Waccamaw River set a record on Friday and will keep rising into the new week.
Already, the emergency and recovery response is staggering in its scope, with more than 6,000 National Guard soldiers and thousands more federal disasterresponse workers spread across the region. They have 6 million emergency meals to hand out, 4 million liters of water, 700,000 blankets and 6,000 cots. Along with state and local governments, federal officials will have to manage a daunting bureaucratic challenge as they attempt to rebuild and revive a vast area that covers hard-hit mega-farms, tourist zones and pockets of deep rural poverty.
It is too early to judge fully the effectiveness of a response that is only beginning. Checks still must be distributed to victims, emergency loans granted to businesses, and homes rebuilt — or bought out. There are mounting concerns about environmental consequences that will test regulators. But so far, unlike the aftermaths of hurricanes Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, or Maria, which pummeled Puerto Rico last year, there have been no charges of large-scale government incompetence.