Hundreds of people needed to be rescued after becoming trapped in their homes by a storm surge of up to 10 feet (three meters) in New Bern, a town of 30,000 in North Carolina at the confluence of the Trent and Neuse rivers. As of 8:00 pm (0000 GMT), Florence was downgraded to a tropical storm by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) but authorities warned the danger was far from over, predicting “life-threatening storm surges and strong winds” would persist through the night.
“We are expecting several more days of rain,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said, describing the amount of rainfall from the hurricane as a “1,000-year event.” “Into next week our rivers are going to continue to rise and there will be more significant flooding,” Cooper said. There had been three confirmed deaths from the storm and several others were being investigated to determine if they were storm-related, he said. The mother and her baby were killed in New Hanover County when a tree fell on their house, the governor said while confirming another death in Lenoir County.
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