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Floodwater surround road signs ub Nichols, North Carolina, as people were rescued from Hurricane-related flooding. AP/Press Association Images

Man shot dead in search for flood victims, as Hurricane Matthew's death toll mounts

The hurricane has now claimed 34 lives in the US as well over 500 lives in Haiti.

A STATE TROOPER shot and killed an armed man during a search for flood victims in a tense and dispirited North Carolina as high water from Hurricane Matthew pushed downstream.

Thousands more people were ordered to evacuate last night, two days after the storm blew out to sea.

Matthew’s death toll in the US climbed to 34 – more than half of them in North Carolina – in addition to the more than 500 feared dead in Haiti.

In Greenville, a city of 90,000, officials warned that the Tar River would overwhelm every bridge in the county by sundown, splitting it in half before the river crests late Wednesday.

Evacuations were ordered there and in such communities as Goldsboro and Kinston, as rivers swelled to some of the highest levels ever recorded.

Tens of thousands of people, some of them as much as 125 miles inland, have been warned to move to higher ground since the hurricane drenched the state with more than a foot of rain over the weekend during a run up the East Coast from Florida.

An angry Governor Pat McCrory asked people to stop ignoring evacuation orders and driving around barricades on flooded roads: “That is unacceptable.

You are not only putting your life danger, you are putting emergency responders’ lives in jeopardy.

In the hard-hit town of Lumberton, along the bloated Lumber River, sporadic looting was reported, and a North Carolina trooper searching for people trapped by the floodwaters killed a man who confronted officers with a gun on Monday night, police said.

Hurricane Matthew South Carolina A car surrounded by floodwater on Highway 9 in North Carolina. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Patience wearing

Authorities gave few details, but McCrory said the shooting happened in “very difficult circumstances,” adding: “Tension can be high when people are going through very, very emotional circumstances.”

In Lumberton, patience was wearing thin.

Ada Page, 74, spent two nights sleeping in a hard plastic folding chair at a shelter put together so hastily there were no cots and people had to walk outside in the back to use portable toilets. She complained she didn’t even have her children’s telephone numbers with her.

“I left at home all my clothes, everything. The only thing I have is this child and what I was driving,” said Page, who was with the eight-year-old granddaughter she takes care of.

The full extent of the disaster in North Carolina was still unclear, but it appeared that thousands of homes were damaged.

Many likened Matthew to Hurricane Floyd, which did $3 billion in damage and destroyed 7,000 homes in North Carolina as it skirted the state’s coast in 1999.

Hurricane Matthew South Carolina Downtown Nichols under floodwater. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Chickens

McCrory said thousands of animals drowned – mostly chickens on poultry farms – and he was deciding how to dispose of the carcasses safely.

The flooding extended to South Carolina, where 150 people had to be rescued on Monday from the tiny town of Nichols, downstream from Lumberton. On Tuesday, some residents returned in boats to survey the damage.

Also flooding were the Neuse River, which reached a record crest in Goldsboro on Tuesday, and the Tar River, which threatened Princeville, a town founded in 1865 by freed slaves and destroyed by Floyd’s flooding 17 years ago.

After that, the river flows into Greenville, where Danita Lynch wasn’t taking any chances. She helped her 59-year-old mother load nearly all her belongings into a box truck and get to higher ground.

“We decided to pack her up yesterday. The water is right across the street,” Lynch said.

East Carolina University in Greenville canceled classes for the rest of the week for its more than 28,000 students.

Hurricane Matthew South Carolina A Methodist church under floodwater in Nichols, North Carolina. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Tar flooded

Mary Schulken, the school’s executive director of communications, said that as the Tar began flooding over the weekend, she had to move her 98-year-old mother and her belongings out of her retirement community next to the river.

“She was fearful, upset, anxious, and when she’s that way, I’m that way,” Schulken said. “I know that is a personal experience that is being repeated and has the potential to be repeated many times over in this community.”

Not everyone was obeying the evacuation order.

Angie Hamill was still serving drinks on Tuesday afternoon at the Players Retreat Bar next to the river in Greenville. Brown muck from Floyd could still be seen above the chair rail, though the water wasn’t forecast to rise quite that high this time.

The gambling machines and an ATM were removed from the bar to keep them safe.

“We don’t have any games, but we have beer and we have soda,” Hamill said, “and as long as I can keep it cold, we’ll be OK.”

Haiti Hurricane Matthew A view of the wreckage caused by Hurricane Matthew in Anse D'Hainault in Haiti on Tuesdau. Dieu Nalio Chery Dieu Nalio Chery

1.4 million people

Food, water and building supplies began to reach remote corners of Haiti early this morning as tens of thousands of people slowly rebuilt their lives after a devastating Category 4 storm hit last week.

In the southern seaside community of Les Cayes, a UN truck delivered water to the Sous Roche neighborhood while residents including 49-year-old fisherman Justin Cambry stood in line. The delivery marked the first time the neighborhood had received any help since Hurricane Matthew hit on Oct. 4.

“Life is completely destroyed here,” Cambry said. “It will take 20 years to get it all back.”

The United Nations has called for $120 million in aid, noting that about 750,000 people in southwest Haiti alone will need “life-saving assistance and protection” in the next three months. Overall, at least 1.4 million people need assistance, the U.N. said.

Meanwhile, US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says the storm’s impact has put on hold a new policy of deporting Haitians in the United States without permission, but the government intends to resume it in the future.

He said US officials will have to “be sympathetic to the plight of the people of Haiti as a result.” But after conditions change, “we intend to resume the policy.”

Haiti Hurricane Matthew Residents burn debris and work to repair damaged homes outside Les Cayes in Haiti. Rebecca Blackwell Rebecca Blackwell

The National Civil Protection headquarters in Port-au-Prince raised the official nationwide death toll to 473, which included at least 244 deaths in Grand-Anse. But local officials have said the toll in Grand-Anse alone tops 500.

Concern also was growing about an increase in cases of cholera, which has already killed roughly 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000 since 2010.

The World Health Organization pledged to send 1 million doses of cholera vaccine to Haiti, where water and sanitation infrastructure has been severely damaged. Sandra Honore, the U.N. envoy for Haiti, said the health impact of Hurricane Matthew “cannot be overestimated.”

Read: “I won’t refer to your inexperience…”: Noonan channels Reagan after Doherty raises age in TV debate

Read: Dublin manager Jim Gavin plays “groomsman” to 5,300 animals being airlifted to Africa

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5 Comments
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    Mute Paula T Nolan
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    May 17th 2021, 3:12 PM

    Lingering resentment due to lingering cost – still paying the Universal Social Charge. Also, it gave employers a new license to shrimp on salaries. I now take home the same after tax pay as in 2008. Resentment? Bloody furious. Especially as most of the boyos who facilitated crash are lining the hulls of their yachts with a greasy coat of paint for summer.

    258
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    Mute Chris Long
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    May 17th 2021, 2:45 PM

    Well if the banks employees says so…. its not like they’re on the payroll or anything!

    148
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    Mute Eoin Jackson
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    May 17th 2021, 3:24 PM

    @Chris Long: you should hear what a lot of people who work in the finance sector have to say about their employers – they are also on the payroll… Being on the payroll doesn’t make anyone give praise to their employers. Not saying the banks are great or anything but the point you are implying is heavily flawed.

    48
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    Mute Adrian™
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    May 17th 2021, 3:03 PM

    Why would anyone say you have trust in a bank? Unless the mean they trust the bank to treat you like dirt and charge you handsomely for the pleasure…

    181
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    Mute Michael Healy
    Favourite Michael Healy
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    May 17th 2021, 3:20 PM

    Banks had to be forced to put in a payment break for loans and mortgages in the first lockdown and wouldn’t even entertain it cone the second one, and yet wonder why people have low trust in banks. Some people think we have the bank debt paid off when in reality we are just adding the covid borrowing to the bank debt and we can forget things like the USC ever going away, meanwhile banks can put out these false mortgage and loan ads where they look great and friendly without realising when u fall on hard times, they turn into pack wolves and can cause people serious health issues trying to repay things back

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    Mute Jack Cass
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    May 17th 2021, 2:31 PM

    Ah! the innocence of youth.

    124
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    Mute Karen Delaney
    Favourite Karen Delaney
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    May 17th 2021, 3:47 PM

    They’ve given us no reason to trust them. While the rest of the population scrimped out a living on much reduced pay, bankers continued with high salaries and bonuses.

    118
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    Mute Quiet Goer
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    May 17th 2021, 2:30 PM

    Pheic the cashless society

    42
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    Mute Corkonian In Dublin
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    May 17th 2021, 7:28 PM

    Asking bank staff about bank culture is like asking Landlords to vote for rent increases. If you want to know the true state of the Irish banking sector look at Ulster Bank and KBC. They are both pulling out. Leaving the country with AIB, BOI and PTSB. All of whom took state bailouts (your and mine pension money) and have yet to repay all of it (nor will they). I would like the EU to insist on the government to all Irish Citizens to open bank accounts in any bank on mainland Europe away from the so called “Pillar Banks”

    32
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    Mute Niall Donnelly
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    May 17th 2021, 5:17 PM

    Shower of Bankers!!!

    31
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    Mute Deirdre O'Byrne
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    May 17th 2021, 7:06 PM

    @Niall Donnelly: wunch of bankers.

    22
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    Mute whitewater
    Favourite whitewater
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    May 17th 2021, 6:35 PM

    You can always trust the banks to screw you over. The future of banking is the likes of Revolut and N26. Revolut did what the major banks have resisted for years.

    31
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    Mute Mark
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    May 17th 2021, 7:37 PM

    @whitewater: Revolut is not a Bank and your money is NOT covered under the deposit guarantee scheme

    13
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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    May 17th 2021, 6:48 PM

    If they could just do their job properly. These days anyone who can make a decision is surrounded by a jungle of in_ept monkeys, making them nearly impossible to contact, 4 years waiting for BOI to let us draw down the last of our mortgage! Don’t build a house people, not with a bank at least.

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    Mute Bill Spill
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    May 17th 2021, 9:19 PM

    @thesaltyurchin: 4 years waiting on the last drawdown?!?!? There HAS to be more to that story! Genuinely interested if you want to share

    4
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    Mute Dsds
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    May 17th 2021, 7:14 PM

    I would have more trust in a politician than I would in a banker…..

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    Mute Rory J Leonard
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    May 17th 2021, 7:36 PM

    Irish Banking Culture Board!

    Was tried and tested First-World Corporate Governance procedures set down for Plc’s, including for Banks, not sufficient to establish an acceptable culture here, Boss?

    Is Ireland the only country on the planet with such a quaintly named organisation that’s established to assure the public that adherence to procedures manuals, first written hundreds of years ago on proper behaviour in day-to-day banking, is no longer optional for the senior management?

    5
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