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Drone footage examines flood damage in New Bern, NC The region has been hit hard by the Florence storm surge.
USA TODAY & # 39; HUI
Members of the North Carolina Urban Search and Rescue Team check cars in a flooded area for residents who have stayed in Florence while it is still pouring heavy rain in Fayetteville. September 16, 2018.(Photo: DAVID GOLDMAN, AP)
Residents of North Carolina, exhausted by the storm, struggled on Monday to relieve the grip of Florence, the persistent killer who closed more than 100 roads, cut energy to nearly 500,000 homes and businesses, and cut city of Wilmington.
At least 17 people have died in the wreckage of the tropical depression, which has become a cyclone, which has dumped 30 inches of rain in parts of the state since last week.
In Wilmington, the authorities planned to transport water and food to the coastal town of nearly 120,000 people. The National Weather Service has measured 23.59 inches of rain at the city's airport since Thursday.
"Our roads are flooded," said Woody White, chairman of the New Hanover County Board of Directors. "There is no access to Wilmington."
Dams and dikes in the areas bombed by Florence showed signs of distress when rivers flooded their banks and authorities warned of further flooding. Landslides have also become a concern, particularly in the mountains of western North Carolina.
Tens of thousands of people have faced evacuation orders from communities along the state's rivers, including the Cape Fear, Little, Lumber, Waccamaw and Pee Dee Rivers. Thousands of residents have taken refuge in more than 100 shelters open throughout the state.
"You know, it's hard to leave the house," Governor Roy Cooper said while visiting a chain of shelters across the state. "You miss it as soon as you go out, but tens of thousands of North Carolinians have had to do it this week."
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The slow-moving storm was centered about 145 miles north of Greensboro, North Carolina, at 5:00 am EDT on Monday. "Floods and catastrophic / historic floods will continue on a significant part of the Carolinas," said the National Hurricane Center.
Emergency personnel have made more than 900 rescues in North Carolina, according to the governor's office, and hundreds more are waiting to be rescued.
Efforts to save them have been complicated by road closures, including parts of highways 95 and 40.
"The risk to life increases with angry waters," said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. "Wherever you live in North Carolina, be alert to sudden floods."
A dam failure in Hoke County, North Carolina, west of Fayetteville, prompted authorities to evacuate downstream areas and raise fears of further failures.
In Rowan County, north of Charlotte, a flash flood warning was issued Sunday night over concerns over the Corriher Lake dike, which had been partially breached.
In New Bern, North Carolina, the mayor said Florence had damaged 4,200 homes and more than 300 commercial buildings in her city, forcing 1,200 residents into shelters.
This information was published when a three-month-old baby died after a tree fell on a caravan as part of another dark and dreary day as the Carolinas continued to bear the weight of the storm. .
Eleven deaths were reported in North Carolina and six in South Carolina. Among confirmed deaths: a man who drowned when a pickup truck fell into a drainage ditch, a couple who died of carbon monoxide poisoning inside. a generator, a woman who struck a tree branch hit a bridge bracket and another pickup driver who lost control of the vehicle and struck a tree.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster told reporters that it would be days before the ridge of the rivers in the most disturbing area along the state border with North Carolina. The authorities have warned for days that the floods could be disastrous in the Yadkin-Pee Dee River basin, which is flowing with several swollen rivers from North Carolina.
Florence's torrential rains have raised water levels so high that they used submerged instruments used by the federal government to monitor river levels in North Carolina, forcing at least two of them to stop to work.
The hurricane center said Florence could dump up to eight inches more rain in some areas before heading north and dropping another 2 to 5 inches of rain to the central and coastal states. the south of New England.
Contributor: Associated Press
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