Flooded town of New Bern, N.C., turns a corner

US Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Karl Schultz meanwhile told ABC 28 aircraft had been deployed as well as 35 “shallow water rescue teams”.

“[Florence] will produce catastrophic flooding over parts of North and SC for some time”, Steve Goldstein, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s liaison to FEMA, said Saturday.

Adding to the rain and threat of further flooding, a tornado watch is in effect until at least 5:30 p.m. on Sunday for the areas of Wilmington, Fayetteville, Myrtle Beach, Jacksonville, Oak Island, and Florence.

During a press conference Saturday afternoon, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper pleaded with residents to avoid driving, as roads will continue to flood and deteriorate.

“This storm has never been more unsafe than it is right now”, warned North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper in a televised briefing.

“Catastrophic flooding, long term major river flooding are occurring or imminent”, Hawkins said.

Officials in nearby Harnett County urged residents of about 1,100 homes to clear out because the Lower Little River was rising toward record levels.

The storm already broke North Carolina’s record for most rainfall from a tropical storm.

Streams and creeks were running so high Sunday in the area around Charlotte, North Carolina’s biggest city, that the National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency.

As authorities rescued people by boat and even airlifted 50 stranded people in North Carolina, there were also reports of looting.

Charles Rucker, a retired teacher, had only spent five nights in his newly-purchased house, built in 1830, when Florence struck.

Damage to homes in her neighborhood was “horrible”, she said. Six people died in SC, including four in vehicle accidents and two from carbon monoxide from a portable generator. SC recorded its first death from the storm when officials said a 61-year-old woman was killed when her vehicle hit a tree that had fallen across a highway. Mangkhut’s tropical storm force winds stretched more than 325 miles from the center, while Florence’s spread about 195 miles, Klotzbach said. Trump plans a visit to the region next week.

President Trump may not be too far off in his claim that the death toll numbers in Puerto Rico were inflated.so says a FEMA administrator, who insists deaths linked to spousal abuse in the wake of the hurricane aren’t actually the hurricane’s fault at all.

Hundreds of thousands of homes across North and SC are without power and tens of thousands of people are in emergency shelters.

Western North Carolina is also at risk of landslides, the National Hurricane Center warned early Sunday.

The army previously announced it was deploying almost 200 soldiers to assist in storm response and recovery efforts, along with 100 trucks and equipment.

About 756,000 homes and businesses were without power in North and SC and surrounding states, down from a peak of almost 1 million.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Long suggested that a George Washington University (GWU) study – which concluded that almost 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico as a result of last year’s hurricane – contained misleading numbers. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz People wait to be rescued by members of the U.S. Army during the passing of Hurricane Florence in the town of New Bern, North Carolina, U.S., September 14, 2018. So it’s “time to go out and have a drink”.