Lumberton, NC – Dams overflowed, dozens of roads flooded and whole neighborhoods were inundated as unrelenting rain from Tropical Depression Florence continued to fall over North Carolina.
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Emergency workers delivered truckloads of food and water to Wilmington, a city of 120,000 people cut off from the rest of North Carolina by Florence’s still-rising floodwaters, as rescuers elsewhere used helicopters and boats to pull inland residents from homes swamped by swollen rivers.
The deadly storm was still dumping rain and had top winds around 30 mph (50 kph) early Monday, but forecasters said it was expected to gradually pick up forward speed and complete a big turn toward the Northeast, which also is in for a drenching of as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain.
Flooding worries were increasing in West Virginia and Virginia, where roads were closed and power outages were on the rise. About 500,000 homes and businesses were in the dark.
The spreading disaster claimed additional lives Monday, with at least 18 people confirmed dead, and the nation’s top emergency official said other states were in the path this week.
“Not only are you going to see more impact across North Carolina … but we’re also anticipating you are about to see a lot of damage going through West Virginia, all the way up to Ohio as the system exits out,” Brock Long of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Sunday on Fox News.
North Carolina emergency response officials tweeted that 23 truckloads of military meals and bottled water were delivered overnight to Wilmington , the state’s eighth-largest city.
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