CNN :
Tropical Storm Florence’s relentless rain has caused devastating flooding in the Carolinas and promises even more Saturday, a day after it landed as a hurricane and left at least seven people dead-including a baby.
The storm’s center is crawling inland over South Carolina, but its main rain bands largely Florence is leaving heavy are over already-saturated North Carolina-setting up what may be days of flooding for some communities.
“The same places have seen all of this water, and the same places will see more water,” CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Saturday morning. “The (rain) blasting, the true devastation, is occurring right now in North Carolina.” Florence crashed ashore Friday morning in North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane, and it has left about 950,000 customers without power in that state and South Carolina.
People are trapped in flooded homes, with citizen swift-water rescue teams from out of state joining local emergency professionals around the clock to try and bring them to safety. The storm will dump rain in the Carolinas through the weekend, overwhelming rivers and setting up days of flooding, before reaching the Ohio Valley. Florence’s location: By 8 a.m. Saturday, Florence’s center was 35 miles west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. It was moving west at 2 mph, the National Weather Service said. Prolonged winds: Florence’s tropical storm-force winds (at least 39 mph) extend 175 miles from its center. No electricity: About 786,000 customers are without power in North Carolina, emergency officials said. In neighboring South Carolina, 165,000 customers are without power, officials said.
“Ready mode”: US Army forces and National Guard troops are in “ready mode” to provide support, including water purification, high water vehicles and rotary wing aircraft. Flooding for miles: By storm’s end, up to 40 inches of rain will have fallen in parts of North Carolina and far northeastern South Carolina, setting up catastrophic flash flooding and river flooding, the National Hurricane Center said. It said there will be “flooding miles and miles inland.” Some other parts of South Carolina could see rainfall totals of up to 15 inches, forecasters said. Rising rivers: Rivers in North Carolina are expected to crest higher than during 2016’s Hurricane Matthew in some areas, emergency officials said. Trapped and rescued: In hard-hit New Bern, North Carolina, rescuers plucked more than 200 people from rising waters Friday. About 150 more had to wait to be rescued as conditions worsened. That number was down to 40 later Friday.
Florence has left at least seven people dead, including a mother and her child who died after a tree fell on their house in Wilmington, North Carolina, police said. The father was hospitalized with injuries.
In Hampstead, North Carolina, emergency responders going to a call for cardiac arrest found their path blocked by downed trees. When they got to the home, the woman was dead, authorities said.
Two men were also killed in Lenoir County, North Carolina. One was electrocuted while hooking up a generator and the other while checking on his dogs outside, emergency officials said..
Two other people died in North Carolina’s Carteret County, according to the county’s emergency management services office. Details about those deaths weren’t immediately available. Those who stayed behind gave harrowing accounts of getting trapped in their homes surrounded by water. Annazette Riley-Cromartie said she and her family thought they’d be safe in their brick house in eastern North Carolina. But the water kept rising. She, her husband and three children escaped into the attic, but the winds howled, and the family fled to an upper floor bedroom. As they waited for emergency workers, they heard neighbors screaming for help. Her 6-foot-2 husband went to see what he could do, but the water was above his chest, she said.
