The death toll from Hurricane Florence climbed to at least 37, including two women who drowned when a sheriff’s van taking them to a mental health facility was swept away by floodwaters, and North Carolina’s governor pleaded with thousands of evacuees not to return home just yet, The Associated Press reported.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, arrived in storm-ravaged North Carolina on Wednesday and helped volunteers at a church in the hard-hit coastal town of New Bern.
“How’s the house?” Trump was heard asking one person as distributed plastic foam containers of food, including hot dogs, chips and fruit. “You take care of yourself.”
Wilmington, population 120,000, was still mostly an island surrounded by floodwaters, and people waited for hours Tuesday for handouts of food, water and tarps. Thousands of others around the state waited in shelters for the all-clear.