Trump consoles victims of Florence in Carolinas

President Donald Trump talks with a driver Wednesday while handing out food at a hurricane relief distribution center at Temple Baptist Church in New Bern, N.C.
President Donald Trump talks with a driver Wednesday while handing out food at a hurricane relief distribution center at Temple Baptist Church in New Bern, N.C.

NEW BERN, N.C. -- With residents still recovering from torrential rains that left widespread destruction and injury, President Donald Trump handed out hot dogs, hugs and comforting words in the Carolinas on Wednesday as he surveyed the wreckage left by Hurricane Florence.

During a packed day, he visited both North and South Carolina, distributed meals at a church, walked among piles of sodden furniture in damaged neighborhoods, offered hugs and handshakes to residents and discussed the response efforts with local and state officials.

"America grieves with you and our hearts break for you. God bless you," he said during a briefing at a Marine Corps base in Havelock, N.C. "We will never forget your loss. We will never leave your side. We're with you all the way."

The emotional words and comprehensive itinerary stood in contrast with Trump's trip to Puerto Rico last year after Hurricane Maria, when he drew criticism for tossing rolls of paper towels into the crowd.

Trump on Wednesday praised Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for doing a "great job, incredible job" in responding to Hurricane Florence.

Trump also joked with members of a family who had a large yacht they didn't own wash up against their house. "At least you got a nice boat out of the deal," he told them. "What's the law? Maybe it becomes theirs."

The whirlwind tour through the Carolinas showed Trump reaching out to connect with those reeling from the storm. North and South Carolina both backed Trump in the 2016 election, and the president largely saw people who were happy to greet him. One man told the president he'd named his dog after Trump.

After a briefing on the recovery effort, Trump helped hand out hot dogs and chips at a Baptist church in New Bern, a riverfront city that experienced severe flooding. The president leaned over and checked in with people as they drove through to pick up food.

"How's the house?" he asked one person. "You take care of yourself," he said.

Trump also praised the volunteers, at one point hugging a young helper and telling his parents, "You did a good job."

Trump's motorcade then drove through a storm-damaged neighborhood where waterlogged sofa cushions, mattresses and downed trees were piled up along streets and boats lay on their sides after washing up along a grassy shore.

"How's it doing?" the president asked after one woman pointed at a house. He chatted and shook people's hands as he walked along a street strewn with trash, branches and wet furniture. Some people applauded as he went by.

Trump later traveled to Conway, S.C., where more flooding is still expected.

"Is everybody OK?" he asked those gathered, assuring them it was "going to be OK."

"Lot of money coming from Washington," he promised.

At Horry County's emergency operations center, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said the storm had likely been the worst disaster in the state's history but warned it wasn't over yet.

"The rain and the water you see out there now is just the beginning," he said. "The worst is yet to come."

Trump, too, warned that more water was on the way but assured those gathered that both he and Washington are "with you."

"Now it looks nice, but it's really the calm before the storm," he said.

It was the same message at Trump's first stop in North Carolina, where Gov. Roy Cooper and federal and state officials briefed the president at a Marine Corps air station in Havelock, which sits among areas Florence hit hardest. The governor asked for help "cutting red tape" to get his state the federal assistance it will need to recover.

Cooper said Florence was an "epic" storm and noted that farmers suffered significant losses and scores of people lost their homes.

"We will be there 100 percent," pledged Trump, wearing a windbreaker and khaki pants. "All of the folks from the federal government that are around the table are confirming it."

Cooper, a Democrat, said he told the president "over and over again" that the state was "going to need significant resources to recover."

"He promised 100 percent support and we're going to hold them to it," he said of Trump.

WEARY RESIDENTS

Meanwhile, exhaustion and frustration are building in the Carolinas as thousands of people wait to go home.

In Fayetteville, N.C., 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.

Mayor Lawson Battle said that as far as he knew, everyone in the town of about 360 people evacuated as the water first started to invade town Monday. But Battle just couldn't think about that anymore.

"I'm focusing on this disaster at hand," he said. "I don't have time to think. I'm just so tired."

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.

North Carolina officials said about 7,800 people remained in shelters, down from about 10,000 on Monday despite the governor's plea to stay put.

In Lumberton, where the Lumber River still covered parts of town, water was deep enough that vehicles passing by on streets sent wakes into partially submerged homes, businesses and a church.

Some of those who left shelters may have been headed toward the coast on U.S. 421, where a long line of cars, utility crews and trucks loaded with generators sat in a jam.

A National Guard Chinook helicopter drops off supplies Wednesday at hard-hit Town Creek, N.C., as relief efforts continue in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.
A National Guard Chinook helicopter drops off supplies Wednesday at hard-hit Town Creek, N.C., as relief efforts continue in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.

About 161,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity in North Carolina, around a quarter of them in the county where Wilmington is. All told, an estimated 900,000 homes and businesses lost power in the Carolinas and Virginia.

At least 37 people have died in the three states, 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.

The accident happened between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday as two deputies from the Horry County sheriff's office were driving the women along U.S. 76 in the northeast part of South Carolina. The driver, one of the deputies, lost control of the van in high waters, according to Jerry Richardson, the coroner in Marion County.

Both deputies were able to climb out of the submerged vehicle and onto the top of the van. But according to a statement from the sheriff's office, repeated efforts to remove the women from the back seat were unsuccessful.

"Despite persistent and ongoing efforts, floodwater rose rapidly and the deputies were unable to open the doors to reach the individuals inside the van," the statement read.

A rescue team arrived at the scene, between the towns of Mullins and Nichols -- about a half-mile from the rising Little Pee Dee River -- and took the deputies to safety. The officers have been placed on administrative leave while the episode is being investigated, the sheriff's office said Wednesday.

Richardson described the two women who died as patients who were being taken from McLeod Loris Hospital to a mental-health center in Darlington, S.C. The authorities did not specify why the women were being moved.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is investigating the incident.

"Tonight's incident is a tragedy," Sheriff Phillip Thompson of Horry County said in a statement. "Just like you, we have questions we want answered. We are fully cooperating with the State Law Enforcement Division to support their investigation of this event."

Information for this article was contributed by Catherine Lucey, Jill Colvin, Darlene Superville, Claire Galofaro and Jeffrey Collins of The Associated Press; by Justin Sink, Jennifer Jacobs and Ari Natter of Bloomberg News; and by Andrew R. Chow of The New York Times.

A Section on 09/20/2018

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