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Florence leaves rising rivers, long recovery

 
Associated Press Bob Richling carries Iris Darden, 84, out of her flooded Spring Lake, N.C., home as her daughter-in-law, Pam Darden, follows.\uFEFF
Associated Press Bob Richling carries Iris Darden, 84, out of her flooded Spring Lake, N.C., home as her daughter-in-law, Pam Darden, follows.\uFEFF
Published Sept. 17, 2018

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Emergency workers rushed into beleaguered cities in the Carolinas on Monday as residents struggled with the aftermath of a storm that damaged tens of thousands of homes, drenched the area with record rains and triggered floodwaters that are not expected to recede for days.

Wilmington, a city of about 119,000 residents, was virtually cut off.

Water levels were rising in some places Monday as the record-breaking rains of the storm, which made landfall as a hurricane and then drenched the region even as it weakened, pushed rivers over their banks. Authorities and volunteers in North and South Carolina carried out additional rescues by air and water, curfews were in effect, and many thousands of people remained out of their homes.

The zipping winds and pounding rains were largely replaced Monday by a different soundtrack: roaring helicopters that delivered supplies to Wilmington; leaf blowers and chain saws for cleanups in Charlotte; and the soft swirl of the still-rising Cape Fear River as it flowed under the Person Street Bridge and menaced Fayetteville.

"This remains a significant disaster that affects much of our state," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday afternoon. "The next few days will be long ones as the flooding continues."

Authorities have blamed the storm for at least 23 deaths, including that of a 1-year-old boy who slipped out of his mother's hands near Charlotte after their car became stuck in floodwater Sunday evening.

Authorities planned to deliver supplies to Wilmington by air after submerged roads limited access to the city. State officials said one road into the city had opened, but they were not certain that it would remain accessible.

The center of the depression was about 240 miles west of Charlottesville, Va., on Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters expect the storm to produce "heavy and excessive" rainfall over the next couple of days as it moves northeast toward New England and the Atlantic.

Pollution threat rises

Flooded rivers from Florence's drenching rains have also swamped coal ash dumps and low-lying hog farms, raising pollution concerns as the swollen waterways approach their crests.

North Carolina environmental regulators said several open-air manure pits at hog farms failed, spilling pollution. State officials also were monitoring the breach of a Duke Energy coal ash landfill near Wilmington.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan said the earthen dam at one hog lagoon in Duplin County had been breached. There were also seven reports of lagoon levels going over their tops or being inundated in Jones and Pender counties.

The N.C. Pork Council, an industry trade group, emphasized Monday that the flooded hog waste pits represented a comparatively small number when compared with the total number statewide.

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Duke Energy said the flow was stopped from the weekend collapse a coal ash landfill at the L.V. Sutton Power Station near Wilmington, and that cleanup work had begun.

Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said a full assessment of how much ash escaped from the landfill is ongoing. The company initially estimated Saturday that about 2,000 cubic yards of ash were displaced, enough to fill about 180 dump trucks.

The gray ash left behind when coal is burned contains toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, lead and mercury.

Sutton Lake drains into the Cape Fear River. Sheehan said Duke's assessment is that there was minimal chance any contaminants from the spill had reached the river.

At a different power plant near Goldsboro, three old coal ash dumps capped with soil were inundated by the Neuse River. Duke said they had no indication that those dumps at the H.F. Lee Power Plant were leaking ash into the river.

Insurance worries

Those whose properties have been affected by the flooding face another daunting task: figuring out whether they can afford to rebuild.

Few have flood insurance in the areas with the worst destruction. Home insurance does not typically cover flooding, a fact many realize the hard way. People have to purchase a separate flood insurance policy at least a month in advance of a major storm to be eligible for reimbursement.

Only about one in 10 homes have flood insurance in the counties hit by Florence, according to a Washington Post analysis comparing the number of policies in National Flood Insurance Program data with the number of housing units in counties hit by the storm. Milliman, an actuarial firm, found similar results.

In Craven County, N.C., which is home to New Bern, a city that has dominated headlines for severe flooding and hundreds of rescues, 9.9 percent have flood insurance.

In Wilmington, which is located in New Hanover County and has also seen devastating flooding, slightly more — 14.2 percent — have flood insurance. Florence has caused historic flooding around New Bern and Wilmington, two parts of the southeast coast with some of the lowest take-up rates for flood insurance.

"Just one inch of floodwater in a home can cause $25,000 worth of damage," David Maurstad, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's deputy associate administrator for insurance and mitigation, said on CNBC on Monday. "People think their homeowner policy may cover them from flooding, and it doesn't."

Low-income families are particularly at risk. They are even less likely to have flood insurance and the lack a financial cushion to pay for hotel rooms to ride out the storm, let alone funds to rebuild. Many low-income families will turn to FEMA for aid money, but the average FEMA grant last year in the wake of Hurricane Harvey was only $4,300. That is far below the average flood insurance claim of $115,000.

The Associated Press, New York Times and Washington Post contributed to this story.