‘Nightmare that won’t end’: Storm evacuees can’t return yet

Members of the Civil Air Patrol load cars with MREs, (Meals Ready To Eat) water and tarps at distribution area in Wilmington, N.C. Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)Wilmington, N.C. • Hundreds of people waited in long lines for water and other essentials Tuesday in Wilmington, still mostly cut off by high water days after Hurricane Florence unleashed epic floods, and North Carolina’s governor pleaded with more than 10,000 evacuees around the state not to return home yet.

The death toll rose to at least 35 in three states, with 27 fatalities in North Carolina, as Florence's remnants went in two directions: Water flowed downstream toward the Carolina coast, and storms moved…