Florence brings fierce rains and rising rivers to the Carolinas

CONWAY, S.C. - Florence, the powerful storm that has already left at least 12 people dead and about 1 million without power on the East Coast, continued to move inland at an ominously sluggish pace Saturday, fat with rain and threatening to deliver hardship and devastation far beyond the wind-battered coasts.

A Category 1 hurricane when it plowed ashore near Wilmington, North Carolina, early Friday, Florence was downgraded to a tropical storm hours later, and the damage of the first blow along the coast was not as bad as many had feared. But an early Saturday report from the National Hurricane Center had it crawling west at 2 mph with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. It is likely to mow a path northwest across nearly all of South Carolina, promising a brutal weekend of heavy rain and potential flooding for millions. Storm conditions could also lead to tornadoes and landslides, officials said.

The center of the storm is expected to head west through South Carolina before turning north Sunday.

Rainfall in North Carolina has broken a state record, according to preliminary reports from the National Weather Service. More than 30 inches were recorded in Swansboro, North Carolina. The previous record of 24 inches was set in 1999, when Hurricane Floyd pounded the region.

The 12 storm-related deaths include a mother and child who were killed after a tree fell on their home in Wilmington; Amber Dawn Lee, 61, a mother of two who was driving in Union County, South Carolina, when her vehicle hit a tree in the road; three people in Duplin County, North Carolina, who died because of flash flooding on the roadways; and a couple who died in a house fire in Cumberland County, North Carolina.

Local, state and federal officials are rushing to rescue people stranded in half-submerged homes across the region. So are many volunteers, including Tray Tillman, 26, a construction foreman who was part of a makeshift rescue flotilla that has plucked hundreds of stranded people from attics, second-floor bedrooms, church vestibules and crumbling decks.

Much of eastern North Carolina on Saturday was still reeling from Florence’s first powerful punch. In coastal Wilmington, driving rain continued to drench the city, wind gusts blew debris through nearly deserted streets, and power lines snaked across highways and suburban streets. Police Chief Ralph Evangelous urged residents to stay home. A curfew was in effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“This storm is not yet done,” said County Manager Chris Coudriet, warning of continuing rain and winds.

But after nearly three days of punishing rains and winds, people in this coastal city were desperate for food, water and gasoline. When the first grocery store reopened in south Wilmington, the results were predictable.

“Everybody rushed the doors - it got crazy,” said Detective Bill Ostrosky of the Wilmington Police Department.

Hundreds of people sloshed through floodwaters and parked at awkward angles when word got out that a Harris-Teeter grocery had opened at midday. The store was nearly overrun before police arrived and set up an orderly line, letting new shoppers in as others exited with loaded carts.

Power was also restored to a nearby Exxon station, attracting a line of cars that stretched for half a mile. Roughly 50 other people arrived on foot in a driving rainstorm, toting red 5-gallon gasoline containers.

Mason Fowler, 41, was among them. After standing for 10 minutes in rain that sometimes blew sideways, he began to despair that he’d ever reach the pumps. “This just might be an exercise in futility.”

More than 1 million power failures have been reported, according to the Department of Energy. More than 840,000 were in North Carolina - knocking out power for almost one-fifth of the state. But like their neighbors to the south, North Carolinians knew that they were likely to face days of flooding from engorged rivers long after the immediate drama of flying shingles and TV newscasters staggering in the squalls.

“There is a lot of rain to come,” said Jeff Byard, associate administrator for response and recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He spoke during a news conference Saturday where a snapshot of the federal response so far emerged. The Coast Guard said 43 aircraft had rescued five people. The Army Corps of Engineers was engaging in a $6.1 million response, monitoring federal dams, helping with rescues, and deploying pumps and portable barriers.

And while officials pleaded with residents not to try to drive on flooded streets, and warned that the slow-moving storm still posed a serious threat, they also began preparing for what will most likely be a long and costly recovery.

Some who had evacuated returned home Saturday evening to survey the damage. Tanya Caulder of Coward, South Carolina, found a giant tree in her front lawn after spending two nights at a shelter. Fortunately, the tree had fallen away from the house and just missed the pump house, which her family used to get water.

But Caulder, who had stayed at the shelter with 12 relatives, said she was still worried about flooding. During Hurricane Matthew, she said, the nearby Lynches River had sent water into her mobile home. All 13 members of the family would be staying at the house that night, she said, since only her place still had power.

“But if I see water come up in the backyard, I’m out of here,” Caulder said.

President Donald Trump’s major disaster declaration, approved Friday, paves the way for millions of dollars in aid for storm victims. David Maurstad, chief executive of the National Flood Insurance Program, said the program was readying to address claims.

In Wilmington, the waters of the Cape Fear River were gray and roiling at daybreak. With up to 20 inches of rain forecast, roads were flooded in some low-lying areas and along stream and river banks. Emergency authorities warned that widespread flooding was still a threat from the storm’s trailing bands.

Mayor Bill Saffo said the river was expected to crest next week. Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina said the river could cause inland flooding as severe as it was during Hurricane Matthew, which flooded several eastern North Carolina towns in 2016.

Up the coast in the graceful, historic city of New Bern, officials reported that they had rescued more than 385 people by Saturday morning as water from the Neuse and Trent rivers turned neighborhoods into lakes. Colleen Roberts, a city spokeswoman, said that more than 1,200 people remained in local shelters, and 7,000 local power customers were without electricity as of Saturday morning.

As rescue boats raced across New Bern Friday, the inland city of Lumberton, North Carolina, had scrambled to shore up a vulnerable spot near the Lumber River, which flooded much of the city in 2016. Emily Jones, a spokeswoman for Robeson County, North Carolina, said that dozens of volunteers helped fill 5,000 sandbags Friday in an effort to plug the hole.

On Saturday, they were watching the skies and praying that it would hold. The river, rising to 7 feet Friday afternoon, was expected to swell as high as 19 feet. Flood stage, she said, was at 13 feet.

“The winds are tapering off, but we still have a lot of rain,” she said. “The concern is the aftermath, and the flooding of the rivers surrounding us.”

Further west, in Charlotte, the National Weather Service predicted that parts of the metro area were at “high risk” of flooding; if the forecast of nine to 12 inches of rain bore out, the service warned, “significant flash flooding will be highly likely.” In South Carolina, more than 150,000 power customers were also in the dark.

In Myrtle Beach, where fears of widespread destruction ran high a couple of days ago, most of the oceanfront appeared to have weathered the hit, though officials were still assessing the damage throughout Horry County - and they were wondering if the worst was yet to come.

About 15 miles to the northwest, in Conway, South Carolina, the Waccamaw River rose over its banks during Matthew, and there were worries that similar - or worse - river flooding would not only inundate neighborhoods, but also cut off the roads leading to Myrtle Beach. Stores and gas stations have been closed for days, and flooded routes mean delays getting gas and groceries, and workers separated from their jobs.

“We have five rivers that are going to be cresting within the next three to five days at record levels and that is a major, major concern,” said Mayor Brenda Bethune of Myrtle Beach. “It means potentially that all of our main access points into the city could be closed off.”

She added, “It really could be a very dicey situation for the next few weeks.”