Hurricane Florence Live Updates: The Storm "Has Never Been More Dangerous"

The utility stated that customers had to fill the baths and water cans in preparation.

Conditions were worrisome, but much less severe, in Charlotte, the center of a densely populated and densely populated area that was virtually at a standstill on Sunday, as more rains approached. The clouds surrounding the crown of the Bank of America Corporate Center – the tallest building in the state at 871 feet – and the streets of the city, usually quiet at weekends, were almost entirely deserted.

Further west, the US Forest Service stated that there was "an increased potential for landslides on steep slopes," warning that parts of North Carolina that have experienced such incidents in May were "likely" new problems.

Emergency response in the Carolinas has been accompanied by growing political tensions and scattered over how best to deal with the onslaught of a storm. At an emergency meeting Sunday afternoon, Conway City Council, South Carolina, voted in favor of an injunction against county and state authorities to prevent construction. from a temporary five foot barrier on a main road leading to Myrtle Beach.

Councilors were concerned that the barrier, while allowing traffic to reach the coast of South Carolina, would greatly increase flooding behind it, endangering up to 940 homes that might not not have been flooded otherwise. The injunction they seek would stop building until "sufficient scientific models" show that the gates would not worsen the floods in Conway.

But as the authorities implored residents to heed their warnings and tackle the complex riddles of an increasingly urgent response, they also prepared for what will likely be a long and costly recovery. Authorities in North Carolina estimate that tens of thousands of homes in the state have been damaged so far, with still difficult days.

In many places, recovery was a distant notion Sunday. Survival was the first item on the agenda in Wilmington, where volunteer first aiders roamed the parking lot of the Peace Baptist Church, strolling amidst large trucks and boats. Overnight, they had directed people that they had rescued on benches and places on the ground until a bus took them to a shelter.

This approach was as improvised as the relief efforts: the volunteers had identified the locations of stranded residents with a walkie-talkie app and posted their personal cell phone numbers on Facebook.