Funeral homes across the waterlogged region have put bodies in storage until cemeteries dry out. The Bowling Funeral home in Rocky Mount had held two bodies for a week. Its owner, Mark Bowling, said some families are holding funeral services now and burying their dead later. Our waste systems were not designed for 500- year floods. Official estimates tally at least 100,000 hogs, 2.4 million chickens and 500,000 turkeys drowned.
Officials hope to reduce the disease threat posed by dead, rotting animals.
Workers used front-end loaders to feed the carcasses into the flames. Tobacco and cotton crops have been devastated. Home and vehicle losses from uninsured flood victims are expected to spiral into the millions. Gov. Jim Hunt called on citizens to come to the aid of their suffering neighbors, but the weather did not cooperate. The Environmental Protection Agency hired crews, such as this one in Goldsboro, N.C., to clean up spills of gasoline Three more inches of rain fell across North Carolina's coastal plain on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, keeping more than 500 roads closed.