Officials are planning to airlift food and water to Wilmington after the city of nearly 120,000 people became cut off from the rest of North Carolina by rising flood water from Florence. At least 17 people have died in North and South Carolina, as rescuers continued to pull residents from homes threatened by swollen rivers.

The US’s highest emergency official said other states were in the path of Florence. “Not only are you going to see more impact across North Carolina this week … but we’re also anticipating you are about to see a lot of damage going through West Virginia, all the way up to Ohio as the system exits out,” said Brock Long of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In Wilmington, the state’s eighth-largest city, residents waited for hours outside stores and restaurants for necessities such as water. Police guarded the door of one store and only 10 people were allowed inside at a time. Woody White, the New Hanover county commission chair, said officials were planning for food and water to be flown into the coastal city. “Our roads are flooded,” he said. “There is no access to Wilmington.”(theguardian)…[+]