Florence flooding overwhelms coastal North Carolina; 5 dead

Bloomberg

Florence weakened to a tropical storm, trudging through the Carolinas at 5 miles per hour as it unloaded pelting rain and floods that killed at least five people. Its implacable advance threatens as much as $20 billion in damage, a toll that likely will unfold through the weekend.
“Florence is still grinding its way across North Carolina,” Governor Roy Cooper said in a briefing Friday afternoon. “We have a lot more of the storm to endure.”
More than 791,000 customers in North Carolina are without power, and Cooper said that could rise to as many as 2.5 million as maximum sustained winds of 50 miles an hour batter the state. Hundreds of thousands evacuated the coast, more than 1,500 flights have been canceled, factories are shut and more than 21,000 North Carolina residents have taken cover in shelters. At least 100 people were rescued from rising waters in New Bern alone, according to the governor’s office.
A mother and infant died when a tree fell on a house in Wilmington, and a Lenoir County man died using a generator, authorities said. An elderly man was killed when he was blown over in Lenoir County as he went out to check on his hunting dogs, the News & Observer newspaper reported. Another woman died in Pender County after a tree fell on a house and emergency crews couldn’t get to her quickly, said Chad McEwen, the county’s assistant manager.
The storm was about 35 miles west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, at 5 am local time Saturday, moving west-southwest at 5 mph, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Top sustained winds were 50 mph, according to the latest advisory.
“Although coastal storm surge flooding will gradually subside today, extremely heavy rainfall will continue to be a serious hazard associated with slow-moving Florence,” the hurricane center said.
More than 20 inches of rain have drenched the region, and the total may reach 40 inches in some areas by the time Florence has passed, according to the National Hurricane Center. The governor’s office warned of “1,000-year rainfall totals.” A 10-foot storm surge is overtopping rivers, and the National Weather Service is warning of tornadoes.
In Belhaven, an enclave in far eastern North Carolina, the Pungo River almost reached the second floor of buildings as the storm moved in, according to video posted on the website of The News & Observer. More than 60 guests fled the Triangle Motor Inn in Jacksonville in the middle of the night after winds and rain put a basketball-sized hole in a corner room, according to police. Cinder blocks were crumbling and parts of the roof collapsed, flooding rooms. The total bill for damage may reach $20 billion, said Chuck Watson, a disaster researcher at Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia.