Photo: The Canadian Press

President Donald Trump shakes hands with FEMA Administrator Brock Long as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen watches after visiting areas in North Carolina and South Carolina impacted by Hurricane Florence, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018.

Exhaustion and frustration are building in the Carolinas as thousands of people wait to go home days after Hurricane Florence unleashed epic floods blamed for nearly three dozen deaths, including two women who drowned when a sheriff's van taking them to a mental health facility was swept off a road.

With the remnants of Florence finally out to sea and skies bright over rivers still swelling with muddy water, President Donald Trump visited the disaster zone, riding through soggy neighbourhoods and helping pass out warm meals at a church in the hard-hit coastal town of New Bern.

"How's the house?" Trump told one person. "You take care of yourself."

There wasn't any presidential fanfare 120 miles away in Fayetteville. There, Roberta and Joseph Keithley had been sleeping on cots set up in a school classroom since Friday. They still didn't know if their home was ruined.

"It's getting a little frustrating, but you have to deal with it and roll with the punches," said Roberta Keithley, 73. "It's just another hurdle to get over in life."

To the south, daybreak brought a return of floodwaters to Nichols, South Carolina, which also was inundated by Hurricane Matthew two years ago. The flooding from Florence had subsided, only to get worse again.

Mayor Lawson Battle said that as far as he knew, everyone in the town of about 360 people evacuated as the water first started to invade town Monday. But Battle just couldn't think about that anymore.

"I'm focusing on this disaster at hand," he said. "I don't have time to think. I'm just so tired."

Access improved to Wilmington, a North Carolina port city of 120,000 that was cut off for days by high water. But officials said they don't know when evacuees would be able to return home, and it may be next week before conditions improve drastically since the Cape Fear River isn't expected to crest at the city until Monday or Tuesday.

"Understand: There is a lot of water inland, and it is continuing to make its way downstream," county manager Chris Coudreit said.

Nearly 3 feet of rain fell in places, and dozens of cities had more than 10 inches of rain. Roads remained dangerous, and some were still being closed as swollen rivers emptied toward the ocean.

North Carolina officials said some 7,800 people remained in shelters, down from about 10,000 on Monday despite Gov. Roy Cooper's plea to stay put.

The risk of environmental damage from Florence mounted, too, as human and animal waste was washed into the floodwaters.

More than 5 million gallons (18 million litres) of partially treated sewage spilled into the Cape Fear River after power went out at a treatment plant, officials said, and the earthen dam at a pond holding hog waste was breached, spilling its contents.