In Carteret County, North Carolina, six teams performed rescue operations Saturday, but those efforts were challenged by downed trees and power lines.
“While most homes experienced minor shingle and siding damage, there is an extensive amount of homes with damage from falling trees and high flood waters,” county officials said in a statement.
The National Hurricane Center warned that parts of southern and western North Carolina could receive an additional 10 to 15 inches of rain, and there could be total storm rainfall of 20 inches in western North Carolina and up to 40 inches in the southeastern part of the state.
“This rainfall will produce catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding,” the hurricane center said in an 11 p.m. bulletin. Northern South Carolina could get 5 to 10 inches of rain, the weather service said.
Nearly 200 roads were closed throughout New Hanover County, North Carolina, where Wilmington is located, and Wilmington police were asking residents to stay inside and keep off the roads.
“We cannot stress enough how dangerous the road conditions are,” police tweeted Saturday afternoon.
Most of the deaths occurred in North Carolina, officials said. A woman and her infant were killed when a tree fell on their home in Wilmington; a woman died in Pender County after suffering a medical condition and large trees blocked roads to her home; two people died in Lenoir County; and three were killed in Duplin County in separate incidents when the cars they were in were washed away in high water, authorities said.
In South Carolina, a 61-year-old woman died after her car struck a downed tree on a highway in Union County Friday night, according to South Carolina Highway Patrol Capt. Kelley Hughes.
Two people in Horry County, South Carolina, died of carbon monoxide poisoning, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety tweeted Saturday night, and the department said that the deaths are being blamed on the storm.
Cooper, the North Carolina governor, said Saturday that around 20,000 people were in more than 150 shelters across the state.
“To the people who have evacuated: If you are safe, stay put,” he said.
Jacksonville, N.C., received more than 17 inches of rain as of 6 p.m. Saturday, according to preliminary reports released by the National Weather Service.
Futrell, who assisted with rescues in the River Hills subdivision, said he went to bed Saturday morning at around 2:30 a.m. and “when I woke up this morning it had flooded.”
“And it happened so quick,” he said. “I looked out the second story and the neighborhood is mostly underwater … that has never happened before in the eight years my sister has been here,” he said.
In Wilmington, police arrested five people who allegedly broke into and looted a Dollar General store on Saturday, the police department tweeted.
Also on Saturday, President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, which makes federal funding available to those affected. On Saturday evening, he tweeted his condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the storm.
New Bern said in a statement Saturday that 455 people were rescued from Florence’s floodwaters and that the operation was completed. The city thanked rescuers and volunteers who they said saved lives.
Moore, the New Bern resident, said she has lived in the area all her life but has never endured a storm like this.
“It’s been one of the worst ones. I’ve been here for years. I never heard of anything like this before,” she said. “It’s crazy. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”