An untold number of storm-battered North Carolina residents remain without reliable access to drinking water Monday even as state officials scramble to clear roads, fix pipes and make emergency deliveries.
Among the hardest-hit areas, Buncombe County and its 269,000 residents in the mountainous western part of the Tarheel State faces serious shortages. The county was starting water and food distribution on Monday afternoon.
“We do not have water and we do not have power across most of the county and the roads are still incredibly dangerous,” Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder said Monday morning at a briefing carried on Facebook, adding that “we understand that many people in our community are hurting right now.”
In a press call with reporters Sunday, Pinder stressed that “we need food and we need water” and said that her staff has been “making every request possible to the state for support, and we’ve been working with every single organization that has reached out.”
