Frustration builds as Carolina residents wait to return home
WILMINGTON, N.C. — Exhaustion and frustration are building in the Carolinas as thousands of people wait to go home days after Hurricane Florence unleashed epic floods blamed for at least 37 deaths, including those of two women who drowned when a sheriff ’s van taking them to a mental health facility was swept off a road.
With the remnants of Florence finally out to sea and skies bright over rivers still swelling with muddy water, President Donald Trump visited the disaster zone, riding through soggy neighborhoods and helping pass out warm meals at a church in the hard-hit coastal town of New Bern.
“How’s the house?” Trump asked one person. “You take care of yourself.”
There wasn’t any presidential fanfare 120 miles away in Fayetteville. There, Roberta and Joseph Keithley had been sleeping on cots set up in a school classroom since Friday. They still didn’t know if their home was ruined.
“It’s getting a little frustrating, but you have to deal with it and roll with the punches,” said Roberta Keithley, 73. “It’s just another hurdle to get over in life.”
To the south, daybreak brought a return of floodwaters to Nichols, S.C., which also was inundated by Hurricane Matthew two years ago. The flooding from Florence had subsided, only to get worse again.
Access improved to Wilmington, a North Carolina port city of 120,000 that was cut off for days by high water. But officials said they don’t know when evacuees would be able to return home, and it may be next week before conditions improve drastically since the Cape Fear River isn’t expected to crest at the city until Monday or Tuesday.
“Understand: There is a lot of water inland, and it is continuing to make its way downstream,” County Manager Chris Coudreit said.
Nearly 3 feet of rain fell in places, and dozens of cities had more than 10 inches of rain. Roads remained dangerous, and some were still being closed as swollen rivers emptied toward the ocean.
At least 37 people have died, including two women who were being taken to a mental health facility when the van they were riding in was engulfed by floodwaters from the Little Pee Dee River in South Carolina, authorities said.
Horry County Sheriff ’s Department spokeswoman Brooke Holden said two deputies in the van tried to get the victims out but couldn’t. Rescue teams plucked the deputies from the top of the vehicle. They were placed on leave pending an investigation.
Sheriff Phillip Thompson said he does not believe the women were in restraints like those sometimes used on psychiatric patients.
It wasn’t clear why the women were being moved in the aftermath of a killer hurricane.
At least 24 of the victims died in vehicles, and most were in accidents linked to flooding.