Newspapers flown to southern part of county
By Staff Reports
Published in News on October 12, 2016 9:57 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Goldsboro New-Argus delivery specialist Chris Best, left, hands a batch of fresh newspapers to pilot Darrell Coley on Tuesday morning at the Wayne Executive Jetport.
From staff reports
With the Neuse River cresting at 2 p.m. today and flooding intensifying throughout Wayne County, many people in the southern part of the county are cut off from information on the storm. Many in the Mount Olive area are without power, and flooding along U.S. 117 has closed off access to the town by land.
To combat this, the Goldsboro News-Argus airlifted nearly 2,000 newspapers via airplane to the Mount Olive airport Tuesday around noon Tuesday, to be distributed throughout the town and in Dudley.
The papers were distributed from the Roses store at 1003 N. Breazeale Ave.
Pilot Darryll Coley delivered the payload -- 62 bundles of 30 papers a piece plus extras. Coley has been flying since 2001, and said that the trip was necessary due to the dangers posed by the Neuse River in Mount Olive.
"They closed off the bridges down there, and the closed off the roads," he said. "And as far as I know more roads are being closed all the time."
Coley took the papers in three trips in order to make sure the plane was not too weighed down.
Each run took around 40 minutes with the aircraft packed with around 20 bundles each time.
Air deliveries will continue as necessary.