At least 13 people are dead in the Carolinas, officials report 10 in North Carolina and three in South Carolina, with further “epic amounts of rainfall” set to hit the US east coast.
It has caused catastrophic flooding since arriving as a category one hurricane on Friday. Some towns have already seen 2ft (60cm) of rain in two days, with totals forecast to top 3.5ft (1m) in places.
760,200 customers are in North Carolina are without power; 36,200 are in South Carolina.
President Donald Trump has issued a disaster declaration amid fears North Carolina will experience its most destructive bout of flooding in history.
Trump’s disaster declaration for eight North Carolina counties frees up federal funding including grants for property repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured losses.
Some towns have endured more than two feet of rain and forecasters say that more than three feet of water could bring major flooding further inland in the coming days.
AccuWeather, a US-based weather service, said that some communities might be under flood water for “possibly a week or more.”
Among the fatalities in North Carolina:
- A mother and her child were killed in Wilmington when a tree fell on their home on Friday. The infant’s father was taken to hospital for injuries
- A 78-year-old man was electrocuted in Lenoir County while attempting to connect extension cords
- A 77-year-old man in the same county died when he was blown down by high winds while checking on his hunting dogs
- A woman died from cardiac arrest in the town of Hampstead after emergency responders had their route to her blocked by downed trees
In South Carolina, a 62-year-old woman died when her car hit a tree that had fallen across a road in the town of Union.
Florence is set to bring the worse of the rainfall on Sunday to North Carolina, the storm may dump as many as 18 inches of more rain before she’s finished.
