[ad_1]
At least seven people were killed and two more were missing Thursday in North Carolina as flash flood waters washed away roads and bridges, authorities said.
The state was heavily affected by the same weather system as Tropical Storm Eta, with some areas receiving around 10 inches of rain. Emergency management officials reported flooding in the central part of the state on Friday after receiving up to 10 inches of rain in the past two days, the National Weather Service said.
Although rain was not in the forecast on Friday, about 30 counties in the region would remain under a flash flood warning until 3:45 p.m. local time, he said.
One of the hardest hit areas was Alexander County, about an hour north of Charlotte, where emergency responders said they found the bodies of three people and evacuated 31 others from a campground .
At 4 p.m., an adult and a child were still missing from the Hiddenite family campground, authorities said, who reported that a fourth person in Alexander County was killed in a car when the waters flooded. floods destroyed a bridge.
“It’s tough on lifeguards, especially when you have to break the news to the family,” Chris Bowman, the county sheriff, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Alexander County was one of five counties in North Carolina that declared a state of emergencyy Thursday, according to Steve Powers, the state’s deputy director of emergency management. The others were Burke, Catawba, Iredell and Yadkin.
At least four bridges and 50 roads in Alexander County were violated by floodwaters, authorities said. Amber Roberts, television reporter for Fox 46 Charlotte, was on air when one of the bridges collapsed in front of her. A video of the journalist’s close call drew widespread attention on social media.
“It’s unbelievably -” Mrs. Roberts said, shouting as the bridge gave way, “scary. OK, we’re backing up. We’re backing up. So thank God we back up.
In Rolesville, NC, about 15 miles northeast of Raleigh, NC, a child who witnesses said was playing near a flooded stream drowned Thursday, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter.
The other two deaths in the state were in Iredell County, which is also north of Charlotte and borders Alexander County.
At 5:45 a.m., the driver and passenger of a Ford Ranger pickup truck were killed when their vehicle hydroplaned on Highway 115 (the Wilkesboro Highway), crossed the center line and collided with an oncoming Jeep Wrangler, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said. Officials said the van was traveling too fast for the conditions and the two men were not wearing seat belts.
According to a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center, the flooding was the result of a cold front in the region mixed with “deep tropical humidity” in the wake of Tropical Storm Eta, which hit both coasts of Florida for decades. days as she moved north.
“This is a direct association with Eta,” said meteorologist Dennis Feltgen of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The cold front “would normally trigger rain,” Feltgen said. “We’re all used to it. But sadly, Eta is in the position where all this deep tropical “storm” moisture is swept past the front and through the Carolinas and southeastern Virginia. “
In Charlotte, rescuers evacuated 143 students from Charlotte Corvian Community School after floodwaters submerged the building on Thursday, the Charlotte Fire Department said on Twitter. There are no casualties.
In another part of town, a man on a bicycle with his wife spotted a man trapped by rising waters, before firefighters came to the rescue.
“He was up to his neck, clinging to a tree,” the witness told Fox 46. “So we realized he was in trouble and I called 911.”
As of Thursday afternoon, Eta was about 115 miles southwest of Charleston, SC, although its impact reached far beyond.
“Remember, this is not a point on a map,” Feltgen said. “These are big storms with impacts over a large area. Eta is a classic example. “
When Eta passed over the Florida Keys late Sunday, Mr Feltgen, who lives 175 miles north in Broward County, said he had personally seen the impact of the storm.
“I had 18 inches of rain” and “I never saw my neighborhood flooded,” he said. “It was a first.”
[ad_2]
Source link