Patients drown in van hit by floodwater
TWO MENTAL health patients who drowned when a sheriff’s van was swept away by floodwaters are among the dozens killed by Storm Florence in the US.
President Donald Trump, arrived in storm-ravaged North Carolina and helped volunteers at a church in the hard-hit coastal town of New Bern.
“How’s the house?” Mr Trump was heard asking one person as he distributed plastic foam containers of food, including hot dogs, chips and fruit. “You take care of yourself.”
Wilmington, which has a population of 120,000, was still mostly an island surrounded by floodwaters, and people waited for hours on Tuesday for handouts of food and water. Thousands of others around the state waited in shelters for the all-clear.
“I know it was hard to leave home, and it is even harder to wait and wonder whether you even have a home to go back to,” governor Roy Cooper said.
After submerging North Carolina with nearly 3ft of rain, the storm dumped more than 6.5 inches of rain in the northeast, where it caused flash flooding.
Mr Cooper warned that the flooding is far from over and will get worse in places.
“I know for many people this feels like a nightmare that just won’t end,” he said.
In South Carolina, two women died after a van taking the mental health patients from one facility to another was overtaken by rising floodwaters near the Little Pee Dee River, authorities said.
The risk of environmental damage mounted, as human and animal waste was washed into the swirling floodwaters.
More than 5 million gallons of partially treated sewage spilled into the Cape Fear River after power went out at a treatment plant and a dam holding back pig waste was breached, spilling its contents.