At least four people, including a mother and her infant, have died in North Carolina as Hurricane Florence slowly moves through the Carolinas, officials said Friday.

Two people died in Wilmington after a tree fell on their house, the city’s police department said.

“WPD can confirm the first two fatalities of Hurricane #Florence in Wilmington. A mother and infant were killed when a tree fell on their house,” police tweeted Friday afternoon. “The father was transported to (New Hanover Regional Medical Center) with injuries.”

The hospital said it has received three injured patients.

In the town of Hampstead, emergency responders going to a call for cardiac arrest Friday morning found their path blocked by downed trees. When they got to the home, the woman was deceased, Chad McEwen, assistant county manager for Pender County, said.

The fourth person who died was a man in Lenoir County who was plugging a cord into a generator, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office said.

Florence is inching along after making landfall hours earlier in North Carolina, trapping people in flooded homes and promising days of destruction and human suffering.

Storm surges, punishing winds and rain are turning some towns into rushing rivers — and the Category 1 hurricane is expected to crawl over parts of the Carolinas into the weekend, pounding some of the same areas over and over.

“The storm is going to continue its violent grind across our state for days,” Cooper warned residents at a news conference.

In the besieged city of New Bern, North Carolina, rescuers had plucked more than 200 people from rising waters by midmornin, but about 150 more had to wait as conditions worsened and a storm surge reached 10 feet, officials said.

By Friday morning, Florence already had:
• Sapped power to more than 620,000 customers in North and South Carolina, emergency officials said.
• Forced 26,000 people into more than 200 emergency shelters across the Carolinas.
• Pushed more than 60 people to evacuate from a hotel in Jacksonville, North Carolina, after part of the roof collapsed, city officials said.
• Prompted 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 40,000 electric workers to mobilize in response.
• Canceled more than 1,100 flights along the East Coast on Friday and Saturday.
• Florence’s location: By 3 p.m., Florence’s center was about 35 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and was crawling at 6 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
• Prolonged, dangerous winds: Hurricane-force winds extend 70 miles from Florence’s center. The storm is expected to lumber into far southeastern North Carolina and eastern South Carolina through Saturday, punishing the area with rain and damaging winds.
• Flooding for miles: Up to 40 inches of rain, and storm surges pushing water inland and not allowing rivers to drain, “will produce catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding,” the National Hurricane Center says. “You’re going to have flooding miles and miles inland,” the center’s director, Ken Graham, said.
• Areas threatened: A hurricane warning is in place for South Santee River in South Carolina to Bogue Inlet and Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. Surges of 10 feet were reported early Friday in Morehead City and elsewhere in North Carolina, the National Weather Service said.
• Record gusts: Wilmington’s airport recorded a 105-mph wind gust — the fastest measured since Hurricane Helene hit the city in 1958, the National Hurricane Center said.
• Nuclear plant shutdown: A nuclear power plant in Brunswick, North Carolina, shut down operations because of the storm, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Twitter. “Plant procedures call for the reactors to be shut down before the anticipated onset of hurricane-force winds,” agency spokesman Joey Ledford told CNN. Federal officials had said midweek they weren’t concerned about that facility or five other nuclear plants in the storm’s path, calling them “hardened.” Expert scientists, however, had said they were worried about Brunswick because of scant public information about its readiness.

Florence’s rain will bring 40 inches to some parts of the Carolinas, forecasters said. Rainfall totals will be similar to those in hurricanes Dennis and Floyd in 1999, the National Weather Service’s Chris Wamsley said

“The only difference is, back then it was within 14 days,” he said. With Florence, “we’re looking at the same amount of rainfall in three days.”

More than 1 million people had been ordered to evacuate before the streets became inundated.

Florence’s circulation was pushing water ashore, especially north of its eye, in coastal or riverside towns such as New Bern and Belhaven, turning land to lakes.

In New Bern, where dozens awaited rescue Friday morning, Peggy Perry said rising water forced her into the upper level of her home.

“In a matter of seconds, my house was flooded up to the waist, and now it is to the chest,” said Perry, who was trapped early Friday with three relatives. “We are stuck in the attic.”

Swift-water rescue teams from out of state helped local rescuers evacuate people whenever conditions allowed. One team from Maryland helped with about 40 rescues in New Bern starting Thursday, member Mitchell Rusland said.

Craven County, where New Bern is located, had logged more than 100 service calls from residents trapped on their roofs or in their cars, county spokeswoman Amber Parker said.

In Belhaven, the Pungo River roared into town, crashing up against homes at a waist-high level and higher late Thursday and early Friday, video from Amy Johnson showed.

Morehead City resident Rebecca Marson said she decided not to evacuate because her surgeon husband wanted to remain behind with other first responders. They’re riding out the storm at their home with four children — ages 11 to 17 — a friend, four dogs, two chinchillas, a cat and a lizard.

Marson said they’d lost power and they have enough food and water to last for days.

Employees at New Bern’s WCTI-TV station fled their studio Thursday night due to rising floodwaters. A posting on social media showed a meteorologist saying on air they had to evacuate. In the footage, he leaves the studio, with radar of Florence’s rain bands playing on a loop.

Just west of downtown Wilmington, firefighters spent hours Friday morning and afternoon trying to rescue two adults and a child from a house after about a 30,000-pound tree fell on it, fire officials said.

Crews lifted the tree enough to get one injured man out, and were working to lift it completely to reach the two others, who weren’t communicating with rescuers, Wilmington fire official Patrick Campbell said.

Wilmington Fire Chief Buddy Martinette praised his firefighters, who by policy are supposed to stop operating when winds pick up above 50 mph.

“We haven’t been … able to get in that policy. … ,” Marinette said. “The firefighters have basically been out here all during the hurricane,” answering rescue and fire calls.

In Morehead City, Brooke Kittrell rode out the storm Thursday and Friday with her boyfriend aboard their docked boat, hoping it didn’t break loose and slam something.

She succeeded — staying awake all night, retying broken dock lines in howling winds. But there were times she thought they wouldn’t survive, she told CNN.

“I honestly cried,” Kittrell said. “I was born and raised here and been through every storm the last 30 years, but this one seems to be doing more damage than we expected.”

By Friday morning, the shore was flooded, and buildings were damaged, in video she put up on Facebook.

In Jacksonville, North Carolina, city officials posted photos of toppled gas pumps and a downed trees early Friday, warning residents to take shelter and avoid roadways.

Officials in several states have declared states of emergency, including in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Maryland, where coastal areas are still recovering from summer storms.

Florence is one of four named storms in the Atlantic. </s> Florence Death Toll Rises To 23 As Rivers Continue To Flood In N.C. And S.C.

People in North Carolina and South Carolina are coping with flooding, closed roads and power outages as they assess damage from Hurricane Florence. The storm is blamed for at least 23 deaths, and life-threatening floods are expected to continue all this week, the National Weather Service says.

"As of this morning, North Carolina has 17 confirmed deaths due to this storm," Gov. Roy Cooper said in an update at noon ET on Monday. An additional six deaths have been reported in South Carolina.

The tragic toll in North Carolina includes a toddler who died in Union County; Kaiden Lee-Welch, 1, was swept away from his mother, whose car had been overcome by floodwaters. The local sheriff's office said Kaiden's mother had apparently driven around barricades on Highway 218. A prolonged search and rescue operation led to the recovery of the boy's body Monday.

Particularly in eastern North Carolina, conditions "remain extremely dangerous," Cooper said. He added: "Don't drive around barricades. We're seeing this happen now, and the result is not good."

For many towns in the state, "the danger is still immediate," Cooper said, despite the promise of clearing skies as rainy weather finally starts to leave the state.

Emergency crews have rescued 2,600 people and more than 300 animals, Cooper said. He added that there are currently more than 14,000 evacuees in shelters in his state.

Flooded roads forced officials to plan to airlift food into Wilmington, near where Florence made landfall early Friday. North Carolina's Emergency Management agency said it delivered "23 truckloads of MREs and bottled water to Wilmington overnight."

"There are no roads ... that are leading into Wilmington [N.C.] that are passable because of the flooding," Mayor Bill Saffo told member station WHQR on Sunday.

More than 1,100 North Carolina roads remained closed on Monday, including parts of I-95 and I-40, the N.C. Department of Transportation said. Parts of I-95 were also closed in South Carolina, along with a number of highways in the eastern portion of the state.

Wilmington Deputy Fire Chief Jon Mason — who spent Sunday night sleeping on the floor in his office — told NPR's Morning Edition that the rain has stopped in his town — "but it's still a bit chaotic, lots of trees down, power lines down."

The recovery effort is underway, Mason said. And emergency crews have performed more than 250 water rescues in the past 48 hours, with local fire crews teaming up with Indiana Task Force 1, a FEMA task force.

Calls for help came via phone calls, texts, Facebook messages and other means, Mason said.

Nearly 485,000 customers in North Carolina and 15,000 in South Carolina are without power. Many schools remain closed or have delayed opening times — prolonging a disruption that began in many places last Tuesday, when evacuation orders took effect.

Images from beaches along the coastline show devastated dunes — their sand spread flat over streets and yards. In one striking photo, two houses were left standing on their pilings — but the dunes in front of them have vanished.

Thousands of people are in shelters in North Carolina. More than 2 feet of rain has fallen in some areas, and many rivers hadn't yet reached their crest on Monday, as they struggle to deal with four days of heavy rain from the large Category 1 hurricane.

"Most main-stem rivers across central N.C. will flood," the National Weather Service office in Raleigh said on Monday, adding, "the Neuse, Cape Fear, Haw, Deep, Rocky and Little Rivers are currently in flood."

The Cape Fear River at Fayetteville is forecast to hit a crest height of nearly 62 feet — far above the 59 feet it hit during Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Florence, which is now a tropical depression, devastated homes with its storm surge and strong winds. Its torrential rains also brought flooding that cut off hundreds of vital roads and highways — including Interstate 95 — complicating relief efforts and frustrating evacuees who have sought to return to coastal areas.

Hundreds of thousands of people obeyed evacuation orders along the Carolina coast. Some of them tried to return home on Sunday, only to be stymied by closed roads, as creeks and rivers continued to flood.

Along Highway 74 — one of the main arteries that connects Wilmington to inland areas — member station WFAE's David Boraks reports:

"Due to flooding in southern, central and eastern N.C.," the state's transportation agency told motorists they should "not travel through these parts of the state."

Disasters have been declared in eight North Carolina counties along the coast.

In Kinston, where water overran the banks of the Neuse River in the city in eastern North Carolina, a crowd of people gathered on Riverbank Road to look at the changed landscape of Neuseway Nature Park.

"Lots and lots of water. Like, you can't see the swings anymore," Lashieka Becton said, describing the scene to NPR's Brakkton Booker. "You can't see the parking lot anymore, just ... I don't know what to think."

At Mother Earth Brewing, educators Tori and Wes Hazelgrove told Brakkton that they're tired of this storm.

"We're just kind of in a period of waiting to see like, how bad is it going to get," said Wes Hazelgrove, who said he spent days preparing for the storm. "It's like a period of being in limbo."

Farther inland, flooding hit "a number of roads" in Durham County, N.C., Monday morning, the sheriff's department said. The agency said more than a dozen roads were closed because of high water.

In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster has lifted all evacuation orders for the state, but residents still face delays and detours as they try to find roads to take them home, and farmers report finding their crops inundated with floodwater.

Outside Myrtle Beach, a stretch of the normally busy Highway 501 was reopened early Monday. But closer to the coast, work crews were hoping a flood barrier would make the road — or at least half of it — safe to use.

On Monday, President Trump declared a major disaster in South Carolina, listing eight counties: Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, Orangeburg and Williamsburg.

The president had already issued a similar declaration for North Carolina, easing the flow of federal aid to the states. Cooper said 18 North Carolina counties have been declared disaster areas, with more likely to follow. </s> (CNN) — At least four people, including a mother and her infant, have died in North Carolina as Tropical Storm Florence slowly moves through the Carolinas, officials said Friday.

After coming ashore Friday morning as a Category 1 hurricane, Florence was downgraded to a tropical storm Friday afternoon.

Two people died in Wilmington after a tree fell on their house, the city’s police department said.

“WPD can confirm the first two fatalities of Hurricane #Florence in Wilmington. A mother and infant were killed when a tree fell on their house,” police tweeted Friday afternoon. “The father was transported to (New Hanover Regional Medical Center) with injuries.”

The hospital said it has received three injured patients.

In the town of Hampstead, emergency responders going to a call for cardiac arrest Friday morning found their path blocked by downed trees. When they got to the home, the woman was deceased, Chad McEwen, assistant county manager for Pender County, said.

The fourth person who died was a man in Lenoir County who was hooking up a generator, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office said.

Florence is inching along after making landfall in North Carolina, trapping people in flooded homes and promising days of destruction and human suffering.

Storm surges, punishing winds and rain are turning some towns into rushing rivers — and the storm is expected to crawl over parts of the Carolinas into the weekend, pounding some of the same areas over and over.

“The storm is going to continue its violent grind across our state for days,” Cooper warned residents at a news conference.

In the besieged city of New Bern, North Carolina, rescuers had plucked more than 200 people from rising waters by midmorning, but about 150 more had to wait as conditions worsened and a storm surge reached 10 feet, officials said.

By Friday, Florence already had:
• Sapped power to more than 620,000 customers in North and South Carolina, emergency officials said.
• Forced 26,000 people into more than 200 emergency shelters across the Carolinas.
• Pushed more than 60 people to evacuate from a hotel in Jacksonville, North Carolina, after part of the roof collapsed, city officials said.
• Prompted 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 40,000 electric workers to mobilize in response.
• Canceled more than 1,100 flights along the East Coast on Friday and Saturday.
• Florence’s location: By 5 p.m., Florence’s center was about 25 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and was crawling at 3 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.
• Prolonged, dangerous winds: Tropical storm-force winds extend 175 miles from Florence’s center. The storm is expected to lumber into far southeastern North Carolina and eastern South Carolina through Saturday, punishing the area with rain and damaging winds.
• Flooding for miles: Up to 40 inches of rain, and storm surges pushing water inland and not allowing rivers to drain, “will produce catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding,” the National Hurricane Center says. “You’re going to have flooding miles and miles inland,” the center’s director, Ken Graham, said.
• Record gusts: Wilmington’s airport recorded a 105-mph wind gust — the fastest measured since Hurricane Helene hit the city in 1958, the National Hurricane Center said.
• Nuclear plant shutdown: A nuclear power plant in Brunswick, North Carolina, shut down operations because of the storm, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Twitter. “Plant procedures call for the reactors to be shut down before the anticipated onset of hurricane-force winds,” agency spokesman Joey Ledford told CNN. Federal officials had said midweek they weren’t concerned about that facility or five other nuclear plants in the storm’s path, calling them “hardened.” Expert scientists, however, had said they were worried about Brunswick because of scant public information about its readiness.

Florence’s rain will bring 40 inches to some parts of the Carolinas, forecasters said. Rainfall totals will be similar to those in hurricanes Dennis and Floyd in 1999, the National Weather Service’s Chris Wamsley said

“The only difference is, back then it was within 14 days,” he said. With Florence, “we’re looking at the same amount of rainfall in three days.”

One of the rescuers in New Bern was Jason Weinmann, a retired Marine who has a military troop transport vehicle he bought at a government auction.

He picked up 10 people on one run and took them to a shelter. Jennifer Morales, 20, said there was 3 feet of water in her home.

“It was pretty bad. We didn’t know where to go,” she said.

Peggy Perry, who was rescued by another group in New Bern, said rising water forced her into the upper level of her home.

“In a matter of seconds, my house was flooded up to the waist, and now it is to the chest,” said Perry, who was trapped early Friday with three relatives. “We are stuck in the attic.”

Swift-water rescue teams from out of state helped local rescuers evacuate people whenever conditions allowed. One team from Maryland helped with about 40 rescues in New Bern starting Thursday, member Mitchell Rusland said.

Craven County, where New Bern is located, had logged more than 100 service calls from residents trapped on their roofs or in their cars, county spokeswoman Amber Parker said.

In Belhaven, the Pungo River roared into town, crashing up against homes at a waist-high level and higher late Thursday and early Friday, video from Amy Johnson showed.

Just west of downtown Wilmington, firefighters spent hours trying to rescue people.

Wilmington Fire Chief Buddy Martinette praised his firefighters, who by policy are supposed to stop operating when winds pick up above 50 mph.

“We haven’t been … able to get in that policy. … ,” Martinette said. “The firefighters have basically been out here all during the hurricane,” answering rescue and fire calls.

In Morehead City, Brooke Kittrell rode out the storm Thursday and Friday with her boyfriend aboard their docked boat, hoping it didn’t break loose and slam something.

She succeeded — staying awake all night, retying broken dock lines in howling winds. But there were times she thought they wouldn’t survive, she told CNN.

“I honestly cried,” Kittrell said. “I was born and raised here and been through every storm the last 30 years, but this one seems to be doing more damage than we expected.”

By Friday morning, the shore was flooded, and buildings were damaged, in video she put up on Facebook.

In Jacksonville, North Carolina, city officials posted photos of toppled gas pumps and a downed trees early Friday, warning residents to take shelter and avoid roadways.

Officials in several states have declared states of emergency, including in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Maryland, where coastal areas are still recovering from summer storms. </s> At least 31 people have been killed as Florence battered the coast off North and South Carolina on Friday and into the weekend. North Carolina officials report 25 dead and South Carolina officials report six.

In one incident, a mother, 41, and her 7-month-old son were killed when a tree fell on their house in Wilmington. The father was also home, and he was taken to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center for treatment. Officials did not know his condition as of 3:30 p.m. Friday.

The family was trapped for several hours as firefighters tried to rescue them. The large size of the tree made it difficult, Wilmington Fire Department Chief Jon Mason said during a Friday afternoon press conference. Firefighters used heavy lifting, air bags and saws in what was an emotional rescue.

There have been numerous calls for fallen trees, according to officials, however they are not aware of any others where people are trapped.

The photo below shows firefighters praying at the scene.

Firefighters pray at an operation to remove a tree that fell on a house injuring resident during Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, North Carolina on September 14, 2018.

The third death happened in Hampstead, Pender County when a woman had a medical emergency and EMS crews could not get to her due to the storm, according to Tom Collins, Director of Emergency Management. She died Friday morning.

There have been two fatalities in Kinston as a result of Hurricane Florence, according to Lenoir County Emergency Services Director Roger Dail.

A 68-year-old man was electrocuted at a residence on Silver Smith Circle Friday morning when he was trying to connect two extension cords outside in the rain. His body was discovered by family members.

A 77-year-old man was found dead at 8 a.m. Friday by his family at his home on Middle Street in Kinston. Officials believe he died of a cardiac event when he went outside to check on his hunting dogs late Thursday night, according to the NC State Emergency Response team.

Both deaths were reported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office by the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials in South Carolina reported the state's first fatality due to Florence on Saturday. 61-year-old Amber Dawn Lee was killed late Friday when her vehicle struck a tree that had fallen across the highway. No passengers were in the vehicle at the time of the crash, and Captain Kelley Hughes of the South Carolina Highway Patrol said that the woman was wearing her seatbelt.

Four people were killed in flash flooding and swift water on roadways in Duplin County, NC, the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. Three people died in separate vehicles on Saturday and one person died during a water rescue on Friday, the Sheriff's Office said.

An 81-year-old man fell and struck his head while packing to evacuate Wayne County, NC on Friday, according to a release from the NC State Emergency Response team.

A 68-year-old man and his wife died in a house fire in Cumberland County, NC on Friday, according to a release from the NC State Emergency Response team. Preliminary reports indicate that the fire was caused by a candle being used while the power was out, NCPD confirmed.

61-year-old Debra Collins RIon and 63-year-old Mark Carter King died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator used in their home. The Horry County Coroner's Office said that they were found in their home on Saturday afternoon, and died Friday night.

A fatal collision on Saturday morning left two injured and one dead in Georgetown County, SC. According to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, a pick-up truck drove into standing water on the road and lost control, overturning into a ditch. Two people were transported to the hospital. 23-year-old Michael Dalton was pronounced dead at the scene. The conditions and identity of the two transported to the hospital were not immediately available.

The South Carolina Department of Public Safety reported a fatal collision in Kershaw County on Sunday morning. The driver of a pick-up truck died at the scene when the vehicle traveled off the roadway, striking an overpass support beam.

A driver in a pickup truck drove standing water and lost control of the vehicle near Gilbert, SC on Sunday morning, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. The vehicle hit a tree, and the driver died at the scene.

A 3-month-old child died Sunday afternoon after a tree fell on a mobile home in Gaston County, NC, according to the county commissioner Tracy Philbeck. The family shared a photo of the baby, Kade Gill, with NBC Charlotte. They said his mother was holding him when the tree came crashing down. The mother was rushed to the hospital and was in stable condition.

Also in Gaston County, a 25-year-old man who was a passenger in an SUV died on Saturday while not wearing a seat belt.

1-year-old boy swept away by floodwaters in NC

Officials found the body one-year-old Kaiden Lee Welch Monday morning. He was swept away by floodwaters Sunday night. Deputies said that a woman drove through the barricades in North Carolina, and her vehicle encountered rushing water flowing across the road. The woman left the roadway and came to a rest among a group of trees. Her son was in a car seat, and was swept away when his mother lost her grip on him. The mother has been rescued.

The body of an 88-year-old man has been recovered in Marshville, NC after floodwaters receded, according to police on site. The Union County Sheriff's Office announced Monday that a passing motorist found the body. The man was driving across a flooded road when his car ran off the road. His car window was down, indicating he might have tried to get out of the car, according to authorities.

A one-year-old child died while in a vehicle that was washed off the road on Sunday.

The body of a 52-year-old man was discovered on the back porch of a house damaged by the storm on Saturday. A 37-year-old man died in a car crash after hydroplaning across the yellow line and hitting another car.

A 73-year-old man died from respiratory complications after his house lost power and could not longer use his oxygen concentrator. Another man collapsed and died while trying to assist an evacuee. He was 62.

A 61-year-old man died while evacuating from Wilmington on a moped this Sunday.

A 56-year-old man died after his tractor-trailer hydroplaned and ran off the road this Sunday.

A body was recovered from a discovered vehicle that had washed off the road on Monday.

A 73-year-old man and a 65-year-old man after their cars were submerged in Scotland County, NC. They were in separate cars.

An 83-year-old man died in a car crash in a washed out roadway and collided with a cement culvert. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.

Several tornadoes were reported Monday afternoon in central and southern Virginia. One person was killed after a building collapsed in Chesterfield, Va.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article reported two deaths in Carteret County, North Carolina. The Carteret Country Sheriff's Department confirmed that these two deaths initially reported as a result of Florence were a result of an apparent murder-suicide. </s> The death toll left in the path of what began as Hurricane Florence along the southeastern coast of the United States increased to 18 with the death of a baby after a tree fell on the infant's home, media reports said Monday.

The 3-month-old baby could not recover from the injuries suffered when a pine tree crashed onto the family's mobile home Sunday afternoon, a commissioner of Gaston County in North Carolina said.

This was the second death of a baby caused by Florence - another died on Friday together with its mother when a tree fell on a home in Wilmington, a city near the area where Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of up to 90 mph (150 kph).

On Sunday another three people died in separate highway accidents due to the bad weather and road conditions produced by Florence, local authorities said.

The hurricane, which has weakened to a tropical depression, is moving through the western region of the state of Virginia with winds of up to 30 mph (50 kph).

Florence is moving rapidly in a northeasterly direction and will bring intense rains Monday to New York state and New England.

At the same time its rainstorms will continue in North Carolina, northeastern South Carolina and West Virginia.

This will raise the water level of several rivers in the region that threaten to overflow their banks, which will again endanger area residents, authorities warned.

In its latest Florence bulletin, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that flood warnings remain in force for a large part of the southeastern coast of the country. </s> People in North Carolina and South Carolina are coping with flooding, closed roads and power outages as they assess damage from Hurricane Florence. The storm is blamed for at least 23 deaths, and life-threatening floods are expected to continue all this week, the National Weather Service says.

"As of this morning, North Carolina has 17 confirmed deaths due to this storm," Gov. Roy Cooper said in an update at noon ET on Monday. An addition six deaths have been reported in South Carolina.

The tragic toll in North Carolina includes a toddler who died in Union County: Kaiden Lee Welch, 1, was swept away from his mother, whose car had been overcome by floodwaters. The local sheriff's office said Welch's mother had apparently driven around barricades on Highway 218. A prolonged search led to the recovery of the boy's body Monday.

For many towns in the state, "the danger is still immediate," Cooper said, despite the promise of clearing skies as rainy weather finally starts to leave the state.

Particularly in eastern North Carolina, conditions "remain extremely dangerous," Cooper said. He added, "Don't drive around barricades. We're seeing this happen now, and the result is not good."

Emergency crews have rescued 2,600 people and more than 300 animals, Cooper said. He added that there are currently more than 14,000 evacuees in shelters in his state.

Flooded roads forced officials to plan to airlift food into Wilmington, near where Florence made landfall early Friday. North Carolina's Emergency Management agency says it delivered "23 truckloads of MREs and bottled water to Wilmington overnight."

"There are no roads ... that are leading into Wilmington [N.C.] that are passable because of the flooding," Mayor Bill Saffo told member station WHQR on Sunday.

More than 1,100 North Carolina roads remain closed on Monday, including parts of I-95 and I-40, the N.C. Department of Transportation says. Parts of I-95 were also closed in South Carolina, along with a number of highways in the eastern portion of the state.

Wilmington Deputy Fire Chief Jon Mason — who spent last night sleeping on the floor in his office — tells NPR's Morning Edition that the rain has stopped in his town — "but it's still a bit chaotic, lots of trees down, power lines down."

The recovery effort is under way, Mason said. And emergency crews have performed more than 250 water rescues in the past 48 hours, with local fire crews teaming up with Indiana Task Force 1, a FEMA task force.

Calls for help came via phone calls, texts, Facebook messages and other means, Mason said.

Nearly 485,000 customers in North Carolina and 15,000 in South Carolina are without power. Many schools remain closed or have delayed opening times — prolonging a disruption that began in many places last Tuesday, when evacuation orders took effect.

Images from beaches along the coastline show devastated dunes — their sand spread flat over streets and yards. In one striking photo, two houses were left standing on their pilings — but the dunes in front of them have vanished.

Thousands of people are in shelters in North Carolina. More than two feet of rain has fallen in some areas, and many rivers haven't yet reached their crest on Monday, as they struggle to deal with four days of heavy rain from the large Category 1 hurricane.

"Most main-stem rivers across central N.C. will flood," the National Weather Service office in Raleigh said on Monday, adding, "the Neuse, Cape Fear, Haw, Deep, Rocky and Little Rivers are currently in flood."

The Cape Fear River at Fayetteville is forecast to hit a crest height of nearly 62 feet – far above the 59 feet it hit during Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Florence, which is now a tropical depression, devastated homes with its storm surge and strong winds. Its torrential rains also brought flooding that cut off hundreds of vital roads and highways — including Interstate 95 — complicating relief efforts and frustrating evacuees who have sought to return to coastal areas.

Hundreds of thousands of people obeyed evacuation orders along the Carolina coast. Some of them tried to return home on Sunday, only to be stymied by closed roads, as creeks and rivers continued to flood.

Along Highway 74 — one of the main arteries that connects Wilmington to inland areas — member station WFAE's David Boraks reports:



" I found Joe Jacob sitting on the curb with his dog at a closed gas station at a crossroads in Bolton, in Columbus County. " 'Cause you can't go anywhere. Simple as that. It's flooded out everywhere. We were trying to get back home from Raleigh," he said. "Just gonna hang out, just gonna have to wait. "He was right — you couldn't go anywhere. At that moment, roads in all four directions were flooded in some way."



"Due to flooding in southern, central and eastern N.C.," the state's transportation agency told motorists they should "not travel through these parts of the state."

Disasters have been declared in eight North Carolina counties along the coast.

In Kinston, where water overran the banks of the Neuse River in the city in eastern North Carolina, a crowd of people gathered on Riverbank Road to look at the changed landscape of Neuseway Nature Park.

"Lots and lots of water. Like, you can't see the swings anymore," Lashieka Becton said, describing the scene to NPR's Brakkton Booker. "You can't see the parking lot anymore, just ... I don't know what to think."

At Mother Earth Brewing, educators Tori and Wes Hazelgrove told Brakkton that they're tired of this storm.

"We're just kind of in a period of waiting to see like, how bad is it going to get," said, who says he spent days preparing for the storm. "It's like a period of being in limbo."

Further inland, flooding hit "a number of roads" in Durham County, N.C., Monday morning, the sheriff's department said. The agency said more than a dozen roads were closed due to high water.

In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster has lifted all evacuation orders for the state, but residents still face delays and detours as they try to find roads to take them home, and farmers report finding their crops inundated with floodwater.

Outside of Myrtle Beach, a stretch of the normally busy Highway 501 was reopened early Monday. But closer to the coast, work crews were hoping a flood barrier would make the road — or at least half of it — safe to use.

On Monday, President Trump declared a major disaster in South Carolina, listing eight counties: Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, Orangeburg, and Williamsburg.

The president had already issued a similar declaration for North Carolina, easing the flow of federal aid to the states. </s> Rain-gorged rivers threatened further flooding in storm-battered North Carolina on Monday as the death toll from Hurricane Florence, now a tropical depression, rose to 23.

"River flooding is dynamic and it's happening all over our state," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told reporters.

"This is an epic storm that is still continuing," Cooper said. "This is a monumental disaster for our state."

A tornado watch was issued for parts of North and South Carolina as emergency management officials also warned of the potential for dam failures and landslides.

Cooper said there have been 17 confirmed storm-related deaths in North Carolina from Florence, which made landfall on the state's Atlantic coast on Friday as a Category 1 hurricane. "We hope there are not more," he said.

At least six deaths have been confirmed in neighboring South Carolina with the latest being the driver of a pickup truck who drove into standing water in Lexington County.

More than a dozen rivers across North Carolina were at major flood stage on Monday or threatening to rise to critical levels.

"Many roads in our state are still at risk of floods," Cooper said, warning people who have been evacuated not to return home yet and others not to go out if they do not need to. "Please don't make yourself someone who needs to be rescued," he said.

Wilmington, on the banks of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, was almost completely cut off by land but emergency management teams managed to truck food and water overnight into the port city of 120,000 people.

North Carolina emergency department officials said 23 truckloads of Meals, Ready to Eat -- packaged U.S. military rations -- and crates of bottled water had been sent into Wilmington.

"We're dealing with some very, very tough situations with respect to the impassable roads coming into the city of Wilmington," Mayor Bill Saffo told residents on Twitter. "As the water recedes things will get better.

"We're going to be OK," Saffo said. "We're going to get through this."

The National Weather Service released rainfall totals as of 2:00 pm (1800 GMT) for parts of North Carolina. The largest amount so far was in Elizabethtown, which has received 35.93 inches (0.91 meters).

The most rainfall recorded in South Carolina was in the town of Loris, where 23.81 inches (0.6 meters) fell.

More than 300 people remained Monday morning at a shelter on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Raleigh, the state capital which escaped the brunt of the storm.

Thomas Hammett, of Otway, North Carolina, said he has been in the shelter for nearly a week with his two children, Jerry, 11, Christopher, three.

"We had to evacuate. It was too dangerous to stay," Hammett said. "Some people have died down there."

"The neighbors told us our home was fine apart from a few branches down, so that's a relief at least," he added.

"We can't wait to go back home and live a normal life again, hopefully on Wednesday."

In Fayetteville, the Cape Fear River was expected to reach major flood stage at 58 feet (17.6 meters) on Monday and to hit nearly 62 feet (18.9 meters) on Tuesday before receding.

More than half a million customers in the Carolinas were still without electricity on Monday, according to emergency officials.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that Florence continues to dump heavy rain on parts of North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina.

"Flash flooding will continue over portions of the western mid-Atlantic regions," the NHC said.

The National Weather Service said there is an "elevated risk for landslides" in North Carolina. State officials said there had been a small dam breach that did not cause any significant damage and they were monitoring other structures closely.

Numerous roads across eastern North Carolina were blocked by fallen trees and flooding including parts of I-95, a major north-south artery.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen visited North Carolina on Monday to discuss the response and recovery efforts and tour flood-affected areas.

President Donald Trump has also announced plans to visit the flood-hit region this week but a date has not yet been set.

"We're going to need significant resources to recover," Cooper, the North Carolina governor, said. </s> WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) - A mother and infant in North Carolina are dead after a tree fell on their home - the first two fatalities of Hurricane Florence.

The Wilmington Police Department said Friday that the two were killed when a tree fell on their house. The father was transported to a hospital for treatment. No other information was given.

The hurricane came ashore early Friday, pounding the state with torrential rain and high winds.

Forecasters have been predicting catastrophic flash flooding. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says more than 16 inches of rain have fallen at locations in southeast North Carolina and another 20 to 25 inches is on the way. </s> The death toll from Hurricane Florence had increased to 32 people on Tuesday morning, as officials rushed to get relief to a North Carolina city still largely marooned from the rest of the state by flood water.

The storm has claimed lives in three states, including 25 in North Carolina, according to a count by the Associated Press.

The victims include a one-year-old boy who was swept away after his mother drove into floodwaters and lost her grip on him while trying to get back to dry land in North Carolina.

Another man’s body was found in floodwaters next to his car in Union county, WSOC reported.

While rain was finally subsiding on Tuesday, the city of Wilmington remained largely cut off with thousands of people stranded.

Officials were preparing to distribute food, water and tarpaulins in the city of 120,000, as more people were rescued from flooded neighborhoods.

One road was opened into Wilmington briefly, and helicopters and military trucks were bringing relief supplies into the stranded city, where hundreds of people have been rescued from the roofs of flooded homes.

On Tuesday morning, more than 320,000 homes remained without power across North Carolina.

Fatalities from the storm include people who drowned, were electrocuted, or were hit by trees, according to the Charlotte Observer. One person was killed in Virginia by an apparent tornado whipped up by Florence, and six were killed in South Carolina.

Rescuers have saved about 700 people in New Hanover county, where Wilmington is located, and 2,600 people across the state.

Wilmington’s mayor, Bill Saffo, said he was working with the governor’s office to get more fuel into the city.

“At this time, things are moving as well as can be in the city,” he said. Downed trees and power lines still blocked many roads into the city.

North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, warned that floodwaters would linger for days, and urged residents in the path of the hurricane who had evacuated not to return yet.

“There’s too much going on,” he said.

At the White House, Donald Trump said almost 20,000 military personnel and federal workers were deployed to help with the aftermath.

“We will do whatever it takes to keep the American people safe,” the president said.

Florence dumped close to 36 inches of rain, according to totals measured in Elizabethtown, North Carolina.

Long lines formed at gas stations to get fuel for cars as well as generators at homes where the main electricity supply was knocked out.

Four dams have been breached in North and South Carolina, CNN reported on Tuesday, as rivers continued to rise.
17 people are confirmed dead after Hurricane Florence-related incidents. Florence is expected to dump an additional 10 to 15 inches of rain in parts of the Carolinas.