By Agence France-Presse
North and South Carolina have so far experienced the worst of Florence's slow-crawling path of destruction, where the storm has been responsible for a total of 15 deaths.
North and South Carolina have so far experienced the worst of Florence's slow-crawling path of destruction, where the storm has been responsible for a total of 15 deaths (AFP / MANILA BULLETIN)
Catastrophic floods raised the threat of dam breaks and landslides across the southeastern United States on Sunday, 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.
"A lot of people have evacuated already," said Denise Harper, a resident of Grifton, 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 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 broadens 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."
Of particular concern are the risks posed to dams in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Gordon, which dumped heavy rainfall in the northeastern states in early September
"What we have to focus on are there any dams that are going potentially going to break."
"People fail to heed warnings and get out or they get into the flood waters trying to escape their home. And that's where you start to see deaths escalate," he told CBS News.
"Even though hurricanes are categorized by wind, it's the water that really causes the most loss of life."
A dull, leaden sky hung over Grifton on Sunday. Days of heavy rainfall have turned the surrounding farmland into soggy marshland.
Forty miles to the south, the tiny town of Pollocksville, population 300, found itself cut in two on Sunday afternoon after the River Trent burst its banks.