Hurricane Florence has gone, but challenges for the Carolinas have just begun

Pulse 19:43 - 22 September 2018

CONWAY, S.C. — 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 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 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 disaster-response 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.

It is too early to judge fully the effectiveness of a response that is only beginning. But so far, unlike the aftermaths of Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Maria, there have been no charges of large-scale government incompetence.

The displaced, thousands of them, landed in scores of shelters, and the evacuation of the coastline was a generally orderly affair.

State government officials believe technology helped: Traffic to a North Carolina website that allows residents to sign up for text-message alerts when the water is rising in their neighborhoods increased more than eightfold from the traffic during Hurricane Matthew, in 2016. A South Carolina mobile app let users know whether they were in an evacuation zone, and where to find open shelters.

The long-term recovery work, however, has just begun.

In North Carolina, dozens of wastewater treatment plants were shut down, inundated or otherwise compromised, according to FEMA. Four lagoons that receive hog waste failed, with nine others inundated and four overtopped.

Derrec Becker, a spokesman for the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, said there had been breaches of 11 privately owned dams in the state, though none have put people in harm’s way so far.

Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina has already estimated at least $1.2 billion in losses, and acute challenges are in plain sight in both states.