President Trump to visit Cherry Point as part of Florence tour

Sun Journal (New Bern, NC)

Sept. 18--President Donald Trump is scheduled to get an update on storm-damaged areas of North Carolina on Wednesday at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

There was no formal itinerary for the presidential visit as of Tuesday morning except that Air Force One was expected to arrive at Cherry Point sometime on Wednesday, according to the White House.

Hurricane Florence made landfall on Friday, but it's 90 mph winds and 20-plus inches of rain have left damage and flooding throughout portions of eastern and central North Carolina.

Storm surge swamped portions of New Bern and eastern Craven County, requiring more than 300 water rescues in the area. High winds brought down trees and damaged homes. More than 300,000 across the state remained without power as of Tuesday morning, according to Duke Progress Energy.

And the effects from the slow-moving storm were still being felt Tuesday as record inland river flooding was impacting areas such as Pollocksville in Jones County, where U.S. 17 was impassable. Flooding has also impacted areas such as Fayetteville and Kinston, where the Neuse River was still rising. For a time, Wilmington was effectively cut off, according to reports.

The storm has resulted in the deaths of at least 32 people, 26 in North Carolina, according to Gov. Roy Cooper. At least one of those deaths was in Lenoir County, and a mother and infant were killed in the Wilmington area.

President Trump said almost 20,000 military personnel and federal workers were deployed to help with the aftermath of the storm, The Associated Press reported.

"We will do whatever it takes to keep the American people safe," Trump said.

In a later post on Twitter, Trump wrote: "Right now, everybody is saying what a great job we are doing with Hurricane Florence -- and they are 100% correct." He also said that Democrats would start to criticize the government response to the storm, and "this will be a total lie, but that's what they do, and everybody knows it!"

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