Carriers make efforts to deliver information to flood victims
By Staff Reports
Published in News on October 15, 2016 10:11 PM
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News-Argus/DENNIS HILL
Sierra Malpass, a paper carrier for the Goldsboro News-Argus, delivers a newspaper to a resident off of Dollard Town Road three days after Hurricane Matthew hit Wayne County.
As she neared the first stop, she saw a pine tree lying across the road. She said they waited until people walked out to the street and began making a path in a neighbor's yard.
"We had to go around the tree, into their yard, and they were like, 'News-Argus delivers, rain or shine,'" she said. "They were sweet though. They really were."
Ms. Malpass and Langston drove around a high-water sign to deliver newspapers in the same neighborhood three days after Matthew's impact. The tree had been removed from the road, but power lines still hung to the ground.
She said a tree is leaning against a power line on Garris Chapel Road in LaGrange, where she has been unable to deliver the paper since last week.
With many residents in the county without electricity, people want to read the news, Christine Boley said.
Mrs. Boley, who has been a paper carrier for the News-Argus for two years, finally made it to one of her stops on Monday.
She received nothing but thanks for her delivery.
"It was my first time where I could get down to Mill Road and Mill Loop Road, in that area," she said.
"And oh my gosh, they all couldn't wait because they don't have any power, so they were enjoying being able to read the paper," she said.
Mrs. Boley said she was able to reach the two roads in Grantham, which flooded heavily after the effects of Matthew over the weekend.
She said her husband, Doug Cooper, is also a paper carrier for the News-Argus, and she said he drove through water on Arrington Bridge Road. She said water seeped into his car.
Rosalyn Lane, who has carried for the News-Argus for five or six years, said she had to evacuate from her home in Goldsboro due to the high water. She said delivering newspapers to Mar Mac and Dudley during this time is difficult because of the flooding, but she said she drove out to Mar Mac today just to see if the water subsided.
"I'm waiting for the water to go down so I can get out there," she said. "That's what I'm waiting on. That's why I rode out this morning to see if I could, but I couldn't."
Making delivery even more difficult is that U.S. 117 and U.S. 13 S. are closed. The News-Argus airlifted nearly 2,000 newspapers on Tuesday to the Mount Olive Municipal Airport to be distributed in Dudley.
"I feel that first and foremost, these are people who have paid for the paper," Mrs. Boley said. "They obviously want the paper to read, and right now with the way things are with not even having electricity, they have nothing else to keep up with as far as what's going on."