RALEIGH, N.C. (AP/WNCN) — Ten people were killed and possibly three are missing in North Carolina as Hurricane Matthew dumped more than a foot of rain in some parts and left roads and neighborhoods flooded.
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McCrory confirmed 11 people were killed and that there have been more than 1,400 water rescues.
McCrory also warned that in some areas flood waters will continue to rise.
“We’re going to see some record floods, and we’re real worried about the towns along those rivers,” he said.
Two people died in Bladen County when a car went into gully that had washed away a road. Another person died when a car hydroplaned and crashed in Sampson County.
Below is a breakdown of the storm-related deaths reported in North Carolina so far:
— Two people were killed Saturday in Bladen County when a car traveled through a washed-out road.
— One in Sampson County on Saturday when a male driver hydroplaned his vehicle and struck a tree.
— One in Rowan County on Saturday when a female victim died in a storm-related house fire. No other details were provided.
— One in Wilson County on Saturday when a vehicle drove into flood waters.
— One in Pitt County on Sunday when a female drove into standing water.
— One in Johnston County on Sunday when a vehicle was swept away when the driver went across a flood-covered bridge.
— One in Johnston County on Sunday when a vehicle traveling through flood waters ran off the road. Three people in the car were rescued and one other person is missing.
— One in Johnston County on Sunday when a vehicle traveling on Interstate 95 was swept off the road and into Hannah Creek.
— One in Harnett County when a male driver drove around a barricade and into flood waters. The state did not release a date for that death.
— One in Gates County
Cumberland County officials said initial reports had four people are unaccounted for due to high water. A person is also missing Harnett County, McCrory said.
Two of those missing in Cumberland County have been accounted for.
The Fayetteville Police Department said Boris Abbey, 43, is missing following Matthew. Abbey was last seen in the area of Morganton Road and Westlake Apartments around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Christy Woods, 45, was last seen in the area of the 1900 block of Ireland Drive Sunday just after noon. Police said Woods disappearance may not be related to the storm.
The unofficial rainfall totals were already staggering: 18 inches in Wilmington, 14 inches in Fayetteville and 8 inches in Raleigh.
LATEST FORECAST: Click here for the latest from the CBS North Carolina weather team
Rivers like the Tar in Edgecombe County are at major flood stage. The Tar River was at 30 feet Monday at 11 a.m., that is more than 10 feet above flood stage. It is not expected to surpass flooding caused by Hurricane Floyd in 1999 when it crested at 41.51 feet. But it has already surpassed Hurricane Fran levels, 26.6 feet from 1996.
Because of the flooding and power outages, a number of school districts in central North Carolina will be closed Monday. Click here for the full list.
For nearly its entire run up the coast from Florida, Matthew hung just far enough offshore that communities did not feel the full force of its winds.
Its storm center, or eye, finally blew ashore just north of Charleston on Saturday, but only briefly. And by that time, Matthew was just barely a hurricane, with winds of just 75 mph.
In Brunswick County, about 100 hotel guests had to be bused to a shelter because the main walls of the Comfort Inn Suites were on the verge of collapse, and dramatic video showed Fayetteville police rescuing a woman and her small child from their car as rising waters swallowed it.
Related story: Caught on video: Mom and baby saved during Fayetteville flooding
Terrell Williams said that when he went out earlier Saturday to get supplies in Fayetteville, he had to take several detours because police had blocked flooded roads in the area.
“It was raining really bad,” he said. “There were some areas where you could see the water starting to overtake the bridges.”
Fayetteville’s Public Works Commission declared a water emergency and issued a boil water advisory on Sunday due to flooding throughout the city.
Cumberland County officials said at a news conference Sunday morning that crews there had performed 703 water rescues. That number has gone up since. More than 500 people are being housed in shelters in the county. They urged residents to stay home and not venture out into the streets.
Overall, there have been approximately 1,400 water rescues so far in North Carolina.
The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued 10 people in North Carolina, including eight from rooftops in Pinetops in Edgecombe County, as state reels from the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew.
The Coast Guard said in a news release that an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Elizabeth City on Sunday morning and took the eight people to Pitt-Greenville Airport.
Rescue crews were focusing on Lumberton Monday morning where water is impacting about 2,000 residents, McCrory said about 1 p.m. Monday. Those residents are stranded, some on roofs, McCrory said. Boats and helicopters have been deployed to rescue them.
McCrory said that while early indications were that a levee had breached near Lumberton, he had recently heard from the town’s mayor that the water had instead gone around the levee. He said his information was that this was how the levee was designed to fail.
“It doesn’t make much difference to the people below the levee,” McCrory said.
McCrory said that the Federal Aviation Administration has placed temporary flight restrictions over the city.
He asked operators of drones to keep them out of the airspace over flooded areas so they do not endanger helicopter teams. He also said that “inland flooding” remains the greatest threat to the state.
Related story: 3 rescued after being trapped on SUV in Fayetteville flooding
As of Monday morning, mandatory evacuations had been issued in Kinston, Greenville and Princeville.
A mandatory evacuation was issued for residents and businesses along the Neuse River in Lenoir County beginning at 2 p.m. Monday.
An estimated 2 million people in the Southeast were ordered to evacuate their homes as Matthew closed in. By hugging the coast, the storm pretty much behaved as forecasters predicted. A shift of just 20 or 30 miles could have meant widespread devastation.
“People got incredibly lucky,” Colorado State University meteorology professor Phil Klotzbach. “It was a super close call.”
While Matthew’s wind speed had dropped considerably by the time it hit the Southeast coast, the storm will still go down as one of the most potent hurricanes on record, based on such factors as wind energy and longevity, and one of the most long-lived major hurricanes, too. The storm had winds of at least 110 mph for more than seven days.
Even with winds only half that speed, trees and power lines came down like dominoes across the state.
The peak time for outages was 8 a.m. Sunday when 680,000 customers were without power simultaneously in North Carolina.
As of 2 p.m. Monday, there were still 435,836 outages across the state, according to North Carolina Emergency Management. Duke Energy is reporting 276,055 outages, Dominion 26,400; Co-Ops 125,859; and ElectriCities 7,522.
The treacherous conditions are slowing down the restoration process in some of the harder hit areas, Duke Energy spokeswoman Meredith Archie said. Duke currently has 5,600 crew members focused on the restoring power and they’ve requested an additional 3,000 line and tree crews to help.
“With the damage caused by this storm, the restoration process is going to take longer than normal…but please know that Duke Energy is out there assessing damage, and in areas they can, they’ll be restoring power as soon as possible and we won’t stop until everybody has their lights back on,” Archie said.
Three-quarters of a million people in South Carolina were left without electricity, and 250,000 were in the dark in coastal Georgia. About 1 million people in Florida lost power.
Although the storm is no longer just offshore, McCrory said on Sunday that the storm’s impact will continue to be felt.
“This is going to be a prolonged event. We will have very serious issues.”
Transportation officials are making quick progress in reopening parts of Interstate 40 after flooding brought on by the torrential rain.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation reported on its website Sunday that there are now only two shutdowns on I-40. A three-mile stretch of the highway is still blocked east of Raleigh in Wake County. There’s also a three-mile shutdown of I-40 east of Benson in Johnston County.
Interstate 95 northbound and southbound in Dunn was shut down Sunday afternoon for an unknown amount of time due to a breach at Rhodes Pond, Harnett County officials said.
Traffic there is being rerouted through Harnett County, onto U.S. Route 421 from Dunn to Lillington, and onto N.C. Highway 210 from Lillington south into Cumberland County. Residents in Dunn, Erwin and Lillington should expect considerably heavier traffic volumes until I-95 reopens. While more traffic lights are working, many are still not operational.
In addition to the closure in Dunn, I-95 was still blocked in four different places. Closures were reported on five miles in Robeson County near Lumberton. An eight-mile stretch was closed near Benson in Johnston County. An exit was blocked at Selma, also in Johnston County. A 15-mile stretch was closed near Fayetteville in Cumberland County.
North Carolina Emergency Management’s top priority is evacuation, McCrory said Monday. The NCDOT is recommending that people avoid coming through I-95 — both local residents and those traveling from out of state.
Flooding from the storm has also closed numerous smaller roads around the eastern and central parts of North Carolina.
The governor said that if you see a flooded street while driving to turn around and not attempt to drive through.
The additional fatalities in North Carolina bring to 20 the number of U.S. deaths from the hurricane.