‘I cry and pray’: Keeping vigil amid North Carolina floods

Pat McCrory said Thursday the number of power outages was down to about 55,000, from a high of n.

The Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) is a unified US algorithm that provides a multi-satellite precipitation product.

McCrory said Thursday that no new deaths have been reported.

David Baker, whose family owns the River Bank Apartments, said all but one of their tenants had heeded the evacuation order by Tuesday, and he was spending the afternoon putting boards and sealant across the doorways of ground-floor units.

McCrory said that the trooper and two deputies encountered the man while going through high water in a Humvee around 8 p.m. Monday.

“We are going to have to rebuild a town in Princeville”, he said.

The historic community of Princeville is the oldest town chartered by Africa-Americans in the nation. It was devastated in 1999 after Hurricane Floyd’s torrential rains. A dike had failed then. But they went ahead and evacuated Princeville, warning residents water might get around the structure.

North Carolina officials have been racing to help farmers swamped by Matthew and to assess damages since the storm dumped heavy rains on the state over the weekend. This includes the lower portions of the Lumber, Neuse, Cape Fear and Tar rivers in North Carolina and the Little Pee Dee River in SC. Numerous rivers in central and eastern North Carolina have already reached record, or near-record, levels according to reports coming from the state.

The newest reported fatality occurred in Dillon County, joining two deaths in Florence County and one in Richland County.

McCrory said the flooding may be worse than Lumberton is experiencing further south. Meanwhile, state officials report, rescue crews continue to search for survivors and utility crews continue to work to restore power, clear debris and open roadways. He toured Kinston on Thursday afternoon.

McCrory reported that a man in Wayne County died after driving his vehicle into flood waters and being swept away – that death had already been confirmed Tuesday night.

Pat McCrory. “We appreciate the expedited federal assistance that will be critical to helping North Carolinians begin the long recovery process”.

Some harvesting has since resumed and forecasts cooler, dry weather over the coming week will help the situation, the statement said, although a full assessment of Matthew’s impact may take a week or more.

“Very close to the deadline, we have a lot of people scurrying”, Butler said.

Greene, Harnett and Sasmpson counties joined 14 counties approved for federal assistance to fix or rebuild damaged homes.

The airport in Greenville was flooded and officials ordered the evacuation of about one tenth of the city’s 90,000 people. McCrory said those numbers translated to around 300,000 people affected by the outages.

McCrory said new flooding also poses a serious threat to state residents.

Hurricane Matthew killed more than 500 people in Haiti and at least 27 in the USA – more than half of them in North Carolina. And while most areas that were closed before and during the storm have been reopened, some local areas may remain closed because of flooding or other issues.

In Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal had ordered the state’s six coastal counties to evacuate for the hurricane on October 6.