Florence moved across western North Carolina early on Monday and continued to dump rain that has nowhere to go except to swell rivers, flood highways, and homes, and threaten more lives as it heads towards Virginia and New England.
Flash floods, landslide warnings and “prolonged significant river flooding” throughout the region will continue for the next few days, the National Weather Service reported.
The coastal city of Wilmington remained cut off by high flood waters early on Monday, tens of thousands of homes were damaged and at least 17 deaths were reported in North and South Carolina.
It was also reported that several dollar stores in the Wilmington, N.C., area were looted in the wake of Florence, which had been downgraded to a tropical depression by Sunday.
On Saturday afternoon, dozens of people picked clean a Family Dollar store in the coastal city, the local media reported. Police showed up but a manager asked them to stand down.
More than 641,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in North and South Carolina and surrounding states, down from a peak of nearly 1 million. The storm killed at least 11 people in North Carolina, including a mother and child hit by a falling tree, state officials said. Six people died in South Carolina, including four in car accidents and two from carbon monoxide from a portable generator.
