FLORENCE SWAMPS U.S. STATES
Floodwaters raise risk of dam breaks, landslides across southeastern US
CATASTROPHIC floods raised the threat of dam breaks and landslides across the southeastern United States yesterday, prolonging the agony caused by a killer hurricane that has left more than a dozen people dead and billions of dollars in damage.
Downgraded to a tropical depression, Florence slowly crawled over South and North Carolina, dumping heavy rains on already flood-swollen river basins that authorities warned could bring more death and destruction.
The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center warned on Sunday night of “heavy and excessive rainfall over the next couple of days”.
There is an “elevated risk for landslides” in western North Carolina and southwest Virginia, as well as danger of “catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding” in parts of the Carolinas, it said.
“A lot of people have evacuated already,” said Denise Harper, a resident here, a small North Carolina town threatened by rising water levels in a nearby creek and the River Neuse.
“It’s worrying to watch the water slowly rising.”
At least 15 people have died since Florence made landfall on Friday as a Category 1 hurricane near Wrightsville Beach, 10 in North Carolina and five in South Carolina.
“Unfortunately, we’ve still got several days to go,” Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Fox News.
Long said more havoc lays ahead as the storm broadened its geographic scope over regions deeply saturated with water.
Of particular concern were the risks to dams, already stressed by heavy rainfall from a tropical storm earlier in the month, he said, urging citizens to heed official warnings about what was now a “flood event”.