He described the damage, including beach erosion and washed out roads, as “unbelievable”.
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A swift water rescue team down a street covered by floodwaters caused by rain from Hurricane Matthew in Lumberton, N.C., Monday, Oct. 10, 2016. Our sympathies and assistance go out to the coastal communities that must now rebuild after Hurricane Matthew.
Many areas of North Carolina are struggling with flooding, power outages and cleanup in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.
(Sawyer Jordan twitter/sawdiggity via AP).
Early forecasts had predicted that Hurricane Matthew would turn out to sea before causing much damage in North Carolina.
(Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP). Church after Hurricane Matthew knocked out power in Hollywood, S.C., Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016.
There is the possibility of life-threatening inundation during the next 48 hours from north of South Santee River, South Carolina, to Cape Fear, North Carolina.
North Carolina rescue workers have made almost 900 water rescues, McCrory said, including 200 people from Pinetops, N.C. Some people had clung to trees or the tops of buildings to escape the floodwaters.
Rescue workers stand by a boat as they patrol an area flooded as a result of Hurricane Matthew in Lumberton, North Carolina, U.S., October 11, 2016.
“Aid groups say they’re sending in relief supplies by any means possible including boats, trucks and small planes”.
The governor said Saturday that people are receiving emails stating that they have an update on power outages.
“The weather looks great out there-Carolina blue skies”, said McCrory.
The two roads onto the island of 40,000 people were blocked by fallen pine trees, and many roads were under water.
He says rainfall totals topped 16 inches in Tar Heel in Bladen County; 15 inches in Goldsboro; 12 inches in Fayetteville, Lumberton and Smithfield; 9 inches in Raleigh and Rocky Mount; and 6 inches in Wilmington. Pat McCrory said, and he encouraged that everyone else in areas that might flood do the same. Most were swept away by floodwaters. “I’m going to go home and have a nice cocktail”, she said. More than 200 National Guard troops and 78 high water rescue vehicles have been deployed Saturday. By the 8 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Hurricane Matthew had been downgraded to a Category 1 with sustained winds at 75 miles per hour. “Trees are down in every neighborhood on nearly every road”, he said, adding “I am no weather man, but would guess that the gusts of wind were near 100 miles per hour (160 km), and with soggy ground a lot trees couldn’t stand up to it”.
The streets of Charleston – a city of handsome pre-Civil War homes, church steeples and romantic carriage rides – were also flooded. There’s no reason to go out.
As of this afternoon, at least 700 rescues of the rescues had taken place in Cumberland County alone, the county where the city of Fayetteville is located, and flooding has been the most severe.
The storm caused massive damage as it moved through the Caribbean last week, killing hundreds in Haiti.
Other places south of the Carolinas, meanwhile, began getting back to normal, with millions relieved that the storm wasn’t the catastrophe many had been bracing for. The power started coming back on.
For those travelers who came to Florida this weekend to visit the region’s many theme parks, there was utter disappointment as Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld all closed until the hurricane passed and the parks could be deemed safe. Next door, the front window of a souvenir shop had been blown out and the roof and ceiling torn through, leaving pieces of pink insulation dangling.
Trunck had arranged for 10 men to come from CT to help with the cleanup, but after getting a look at the damage, he said he could probably get by with “a couple of guys and a mop”.
The combination of the two could prove especially destructive, Weiss said.
Tropical storm conditions are expected in the tropical storm warning area in the Carolinas tonight and Saturday. “This is a prolonged event”, North Carolina Emergency Management said on Twitter.
The center said in a news release Saturday morning that the storm’s center made landfall just southeast of the town of McClellanville.
Hurricane Matthew is expected to have major surge impact in the Lowcountry. Prior to the 1999 flood, Hurricane Fran held the high water mark record at 23.3. feet. And dramatic video showed Fayetteville police rescuing a woman and her small child from their vehicle as rising waters swallowed it.
As the storm closed in over the past few days, an estimated 2 million people across the Southeast were warned to clear out.
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“No, we get snow and we get the Eagles”, he said with a laugh. “It was a super close call”. It still had hurricane-force winds of 75 miles per hour.
