Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 7 September 2019
Dorian’s floodwaters trap people in attics in North Carolina

spread fear up and down
the coast and kept peo-
ple guessing as to where it
would go.
By late afternoon, Dorian
had peeled off the coast-
line and was finally mak-
ing its exit out to sea. It
is expected to remain a
hurricane as it sweeps
up the Eastern Seaboard
through Saturday, veering
far enough offshore that its
hurricane-force winds are
unlikely to pose any threat
to land in the U.S.
Power outages had
dropped by about one-
third, to around 213,000 in
the Carolinas and Virginia.
At least four deaths in the
Southeast were blamed on
Dorian. All were men in Flor-
ida or North Carolina who
died in falls or by electro-
cution while trimming trees,
putting up storm shutters or
otherwise getting ready for
the hurricane.
As Dorian closed in, more
than a quarter-million resi-
dents and visitors were
ordered to evacuate the
Outer Banks, which stick out
from the Eastern Seaboard
like the side-view mirror on
Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department chief Albert O’Neal, in blue shirt, boats down Sunset Drive on his way to seek out islanders
stranded in their flooded homes in the aftermath of Hurricane. Dorian Friday, Sept. 6, 2019 on Ocracoke Island, N.C. a car. But many just tied
Associated Press down their boats, removed
objects from their yards
By JEFFREY COLLINS and a far weaker storm than came rushing through the Goodloe-Murphy said that that could blow away, and
BEN FINLEY the brute that wreaked island.” people were calling in to hunkered down.
Associated Press havoc on the Bahamas at “It just started looking like report that “houses are Dorian slammed the Ba-
ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. (AP) the start of the week. Just a bathtub, very quickly,” shaking like crazy” and that hamas at the start of the
— A weakened Hurricane when it looked as if its run said Harris, who was safe in “it’s never been like this be- week with 185 mph (295
Dorian flooded homes on up the Southeast coast was his third-floor condo. “We fore.” kph) winds, killing at least
North Carolina’s Outer coming to a relatively quiet went from almost no water By evening, the gover- 30 people and obliterat-
Banks on Friday with a fury end, the Category 1 hurri- to 4 to 6 feet in a matter of nor said that officials were ing countless homes. From
that took even storm-hard- cane sent seawater surging minutes.” aware of no serious injuries there, it swept past Florida
ened residents by surprise, over neighborhoods, flood- The Coast Guard began on the Outer Banks from and Georgia, then side-
forcing people to climb ing the first floors of many landing local law enforce- the storm. One 79-year- swiped the Carolinas on
into their attics. Hundreds homes, even ones on stilts. ment officers on the island old man was airlifted from Thursday, spinning off tor-
were feared trapped by “There is significant con- via helicopter and airlift- Ocracoke Island because nadoes that peeled away
high water, and neighbors cern about hundreds of ing out the sick, the elderly of a pre-existing condition, roofs and flipped recre-
used boats to rescue one people trapped on Oc- or others in distress, Hyde authorities said. People in ational vehicles.
another. racoke Island,” Gov. Roy County authorities said. need of temporary housing Still, the damage was far
Medics and other rescuers Cooper said. National Guard helicop- were being taken to a shel- less than feared in many
rushed to Ocracoke Island Over and over, longtime ters also flew supplies and ter on the mainland, the parts of the Carolinas, in-
— accessible only by boat residents said that they a rescue team in. Residents governor said. cluding historic Charles-
or air — to reach those who had never seen flooding were told to get to the “The hurricane has left be- ton, South Carolina, which
made the mistake of defy- so bad, and that places in highest point in their homes hind destruction where is prone to flooding even
ing mandatory evacuation their homes that had never in the meantime. storm surge inundated from ordinary storms, and
orders along the 200-mile flooded before were inun- “Several people were res- Ocracoke Island,” Coo- Wilmington, North Carolina,
(320-kilometer) ribbon of dated. cued from their upper floors per said. “Currently the is- the state’s biggest coastal
low-lying islands. “We were all on social me- or attics by boat by good land has no electricity and city.
“We are flooding like cra- dia laughing about how Samaritans,” Ocracoke Is- many homes and buildings Joseph Pawlick went out
zy,” Ocracoke Island book- we’d done well and there land restaurant owner Ja- are still underwater.” Friday morning to rake
shop owner Leslie Lanier was really no flooding at all, son Wells said in a text mes- Around midmorning, the leaves, twigs and other de-
texted. “I have been here just rain, typical rain,” Steve sage. eye of the storm came bris from the sidewalk out-
32 years and not seen this.” Harris, who has lived on In Buxton on Hatteras Is- ashore at Cape Hatteras, side his Wilmington home.
Its winds down to 90 mph Ocracoke Island for most land, close to where Dorian Dorian’s first landfall in the “I slept like a baby last
(145 kph), Dorian howled of the last 19 years. And blew ashore, Radio Hat- continental U.S. after a night. This, thankfully, was
over the Outer Banks as then, “the wall of water just teras volunteer Mary Helen week and a half in which it not bad,” he said.q