No Kenyan reported dead after Hurricane Florence

As Florence, now a tropical storm, swirls at a near-standstill over the Carolinas the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) is sending 42 firefighters to North Carolina to assist.

It has trapped people in flooded homes as citizen swift-water rescue teams from out of state join local emergency professionals around the clock to try and bring them to safety.

Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel went viral for seemingly exaggerating Hurricane Florence’s power during live camera interview.

The Florence center is crawling inland over SC, but its main rain bands are hitting already-saturated North Carolina – setting up what may be days of flooding for some communities.

In New Bern, a riverfront city near the North Carolina coast that saw storm surges up to 10 feet (3 meters), authorities were rescuing stranded residents and taking stock of damages. Power outages are widespread including over 740,000 in North Carolina and 163,000 in SC. Super Typhoon Mangkhut was expected to hit an area in the Philippines on Saturday that would affect more than five million people.

President Trump calls North Carolina officials, to offer crucial federal aid as Tropical Storm Florence continues to ravage areas of the state.

What do we know of the victims?

At least four people have died, and authorities fear the toll will go higher as the tropical storm crawls westward Saturday across SC.

In South Carolina, a 62-year-old woman died when her vehicle hit a tree that had fallen across a road in the town of Union. Earlier, authorities said a man drowned after his pickup truck flipped into a drainage ditch along a flooded SC road and two people died from inhaling carbon monoxide from a generator in their home.

Though the once-devastating storm had weakened significantly as it moved inland, reports of damage in Lexington County included a tree falling onto a West Columbia home Saturday morning. But this is not the first time a weather reporter has exaggerated news, there have been several in the past.

A man wades through rising flood waters on the Cape Fear River during Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, North Carolina on 14 September 2018.

“The amount of water and the storm surge was very overwhelming”, he said.

The Waccamaw River should rise to minor flooding levels Saturday evening before reaching record levels early next week. Port City Daily will have additional information on making a safe return to the area through the weeked.

“That’s preliminary at this point”.

Where is the storm heading now?

Most Kenyans living along the coastal cities of North and SC heeded calls to evacuate areas that were to bear the brunt of Hurricane Florence.

It is expected to weaken gradually as it moves inland, heading northwards through the OH valley by Monday. One was electrocuted while hooking up a generator and the other while checking on his dogs outside, emergency officials said.