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The Longest Week: Carolinas Worn Out By Florence
Hurricane Florence is still wearing out the Carolinas, where residents have endured an agonizing week of violent winds, torrential rain, widespread flooding, power outages and death.
Frustration and sheer exhaustion are building as thousands of people wait to go home seven days after the storm began battering the coast.
Florence is blamed for at least 37 deaths. That includes those of two women who drowned when a sheriff's van taking them to a mental health facility was swept off a road in South Carolina.
President Trump Visits Carolinas In Wake Of Hurricane Florence
President Donald Trump visited Eastern North Carolina Wednesday to survey the damage from Hurricane Florence.
The president arrived on Air Force One along with members of his emergency team, Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, and others.
At a roundtable discussion, Trump noted the unprecedented impact of Florence, and offered his condolences to the families of those who were killed in the wake of the storm.
He also thanked the first responders who came from around the country to help with recovery.
Trump traveled on to South Carolina Wednesday afternoon.
Florence Causes Million-Gallon Untreated Wastewater Discharge In Greensboro
More than a million gallons of untreated wastewater was discharged into a Greensboro creek due to heavy rains from Florence, among the largest such incidents in modern memory.
According to the City of Greensboro, roughly 1.3 million gallons of untreated wastewater overflowed into local waters on September 17. The discharge happened over the span of about 23 hours.
When the remnants of Hurricane Florence dropped significant rainfall on the region, rising waters from Middle Reedy Fork Creek flooded the wastewater treatment facility there, shutting down the pumps and paralyzing the facility. That's what ultimately led to the discharge.
This is the third such Florence-related incident reported by the city this week.
On Monday, 625,000 gallons of wastewater discharged from a manhole on Battleground Ave. And on Sunday, about 63,000 gallons of untreated wastewater overflowed into North Buffalo Creek.
Floods Prevent Inspectors From Studying Environmental Harm
Aerial photographs show widespread devastation to farms and industrial sites in eastern North Carolina.
But conditions remain so bad on the ground that inspectors have been prevented from visiting some of the hardest hit areas to collect samples of the floodwater for lab testing.
Photographs have revealed tell-tale trails of rainbow-colored sheen indicating potential contamination visible on top of the black floodwaters.
State officials say about 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,500 hogs have been killed in flooding from Florence as rising North Carolina rivers swamped dozens of farm buildings where the animals were being raised for market.
ACLU Accuses Greensboro Police Of Discrimination
The American Civil Liberties Union is accusing the City of Greensboro Police Department, among others, of discrimination. The charges focus on age and gender.
The Greensboro Police Department is one of 10 employers named in the complaints. The ACLU says they used Facebook ads targeted for men to share job opportunities.
Included in the filing is an example of a Facebook ad from the City of Greensboro for jobs with the police department. It shows that the ad was specifically sent to reach “men ages 25 to 35.”
The ACLU includes Facebook in its complaint for “enabling, encouraging, and assisting” employers in unlawfully using sex and age as part of their ad strategy.
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