In a number of locations in eastern North Carolina, the *sewer- and drinking-water systems have been damaged or overwhelmed.
“We do have observed releases of wastewater from manholes, from overtopped sewer areas in the impacted zone,” Reggie Cheatham, the Environmental Protection Agency’s director of emergency management, said in a teleconference with reporters.
Cheatham said the wastewater treatment system in Jacksonville, N.C., which experienced storm surge during Florence’s landfall on Friday morning, suffered a “catastrophic” failure.
“They basically had to deal with the storm surge, loss of power, and obviously shut down pumps, and the system completely depressurized, and they haven’t been able to bring that back up,” he said.