Sept. 16 (UPI) — One day after Hurricane Florence slammed into North Carolina, at least 14 people have died, nearly 1 million are without power and hundreds have been rescued from rising waters.
In North Carolina on Friday, five people were reported killed, including a mother and baby in Wilmington after a tree fell on a house, killing the pair around 9:30 a.m. The father, who was pulled from the home, was transported to a local hospital with injuries, police said.
Another of the deaths occurred in Lenoir County, when a 78-year-old man was plugging in a generator, according to WNCN-TV, trying to connect two extension cords outside in the rain.
A fourth death was a 77-year-old Kinston man, who family members said died at 8 a.m. Friday when he was “blown down by the wind” while tending dogs.
In Pender County, a woman called for help, but died of a heart attack because emergency crews couldn’t reach her due to trees that had fallen in the road.
On Saturday afternoon, two unidentified people were reported dead in North Carolina’s Duplin County “due to flash flooding and swift water on roadways, according to the county’s emergency management.
An 81-year-old man died after hitting his head while trying to evacuate in Wayne County and a husband and wife died in a storm-related house fire in Cumberland County.
On Saturday, the first fatality in South Carolina was reported: a 61-year-old woman who was killed when her car hit a tree that fell in Union County on Friday night, WYFF-TV reported.
Three died in Duplin County “due to flash flooding and swift water on roadways,” the sheriff’s office announced.
The Horry County Coroner’s Office confirmed two people died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator.
As a tropical storm, Florence is moving at 2 mph — about as fast as someone could walk, the National Hurricane Center said in an update Saturday. The storm has moved about 100 miles since making landfall — about 4 mph on average — as a Category 1 hurricane. The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, crept from North Carolina to South Carolina.
On Saturday morning, President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration for eight North Carolina counties. Federal funding can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses as well as other aid both for homeowners and business owners.
“We in North Carolina have been through tough storms and this one is sure testing us,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference late Saturday morning. “But now is the time for us to persevere. I have never known North Carolinians to quit in the face of a challenge and we’re not about to start.”
He warned residents to remain in place, including the 1 million he reported Friday were in shelters.
“If you are safe, stay put. Don’t go back until this storm passes and you get the official all-clear,” he told residents Saturday.
Up to 40 inches of rain and storm surges pushing water inland will produce catastrophic flash flooding, the National Hurricane Center said. Rivers in North Carolina are predicted to crest higher than during 2016’s Hurricane Matthew in some areas, emergency officials said.
Before the storm, the U.S. Geological Survey predicted Florence would cause beach erosion along about three-quarters of the North Carolina coast.
Since Florence went ashore at 7:15 a.m. Friday, gusts of winds in the 50 to 100 mph range were reported.
The heavy rainfall and storm surge have been more problematic than wind speed.
The city of Swansboro had more than 30 inches, breaking the all-time record for rainfall in a tropical system in North Carolina.
“Our hearts go out to the families of those who died in this storm,” Cooper said in a statement Friday. “Hurricane Florence is going to continue its violent grind across our state for days. Be extremely careful and stay alert.”
A North Carolina man woke up to tree branches in his bedroom in his New Bern home.
Harry Mathias III said his father was sleeping when a tree came crashing through the ceiling.
“About an hour after he fell asleep, a piece of drywall came in from the ceiling and woke him, along with the rest of us, with a loud bang,” he told CNN. “After taking a look, we realized rain water was coming in and tree branches were coming in from the attic.”
He added: “If the tree had fallen about 3-4 more feet, it would have crushed my father to death.”
Rescuers were working to save people trapped in their homes. In North Carolina, there have been 245 people and 77 animals rescued.
“We were out all night last night actually cutting holes in people’s roofs because the water levels rose so high, so quick,” Lt. Mitchell Ruslander from Swift-water rescue told CNN.
“It’s just way more than I expected … Absolute worst is the flooding.”
Police in Fayetteville, N.C., warned residents within one mile of the banks of the Cape Fear River and Little River to evacuate.
“What we’re telling people is the worse is yet to come,” Kevin Arata, who is Fayettesville’s communications director, told CNN. “Really the rains are starting to collect because it’s hitting harder up north. When it goes into those banks or tributaries up there and then comes down, that’s where trouble starts. While we haven’t seen it rise all the way yet, it’s going to happen here in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
On Saturday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said 6,500 National Guard, 7,500 Coast Guard and FEMA Urban Search and Rescue personnel have been deployed. Forty-three helicopters and 1,300 high-water trucks are being used.
Thousands of Carolina residents were without power Saturday afternoon — 681,164 of 4.5 million customers in North Carolina and 64,625 out of 2.3 million in South Carolina, according to Poweroutages.us at 6:05 p.m.
Several airports have suspended operations, including Charleston International Airport and Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
More than 400 flights in and out of the region scheduled for this weekend were also canceled, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.com.
And all the ponies on North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island are safe, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore posted on Twitter.
