Florence death toll swells to 14 as rivers rise
Nation & World Brief: September 17
A man peers from his flooded home in Lumberton, N.C.,
Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018, in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.
As the death toll from Florence grew and hundreds of people were pulled from flooded homes, North Carolina braced for catastrophic, widespread river flooding that could be the next stage of a mounting disaster. Weakened to a tropical depression early Sunday after blowing ashore as a hurricane with 90 mph winds on Friday.
The storm’s death toll climbed to 14 when a man drowned after a pickup truck flipped into a drainage ditch along a flooded road in South Carolina.
About 740,000 homes and businesses remained without power in the Carolinas, and utilities said some could be out for weeks. Radar showed parts of the sprawling storm over six states, but North and South Carolina were in the bull’s-eye.
Already, more than 2 feet of rain has fallen in places, and forecasters are saying there could be an additional 1 1⁄2 feet before Sunday is out. Authorities ordered the immediate evacuation of up to 7,500 people living within a mile of a stretch of the Cape Fear River and the Little River. The evacuation zone included part of the city of Fayetteville, population 200,000.
The Defense Department said about 13,500 military personnel were assigned to help relief efforts, which could be massive since river forecasts showed major flooding was likely in towns as far as 250 miles inland.
The head of Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said officials were still focused on finding and rescuing people. “We’ll get through this. It’ll be ugly, but we’ll get through it,” Long told NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
Authorities ordered the immediate evacuation of up to 7,500 people living within a mile of a stretch of the Cape Fear River and the Little River. The evacuation zone included part of the city of Fayetteville, population 200,000.
