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Several States Still Navigating Flood Waters, Damages as Matthew Weakens at Sea

CBN

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At least 17 people are dead in the US as a weakened Hurricane Matthew caused severe flooding and destruction across four states.

In North Carolina, a staggering 18 inches of rain drenched Wilmington, 14 inches fell in Fayetteville and 8 inches in Raleigh.

So far, seven people have died in the Tar Heel state, most of the deaths happening when rushing flood waters swept their cars off roads.

Several counties are still under severe flooding threats.

“I just signed an expedited major disaster declaration that we’ve sent to the president that will provide immediate federal assistance to the state and additional federal assistance to the state as quick as possible,” said North Carolina’s governor Pat McCrory. "These will include grants to help people that don't have proper insurance for flooding insurance. This will also help the state government with debris, repair roads, bridges.”

According to state officials, nearly 900 water rescues were conducted Sunday morning.

“The National Guard, our highway patrol, special swift water teams from throughout the state and out of the state are rescuing people from their homes,” McCroy said.

In neighboring South Carolina, where Matthew officially made landfall Saturday morning just north of Charleston, a 6-foot surge of water caused massive flooding.

“We had a lot of rain, for many hours,” said Capt. Bob Bromage, with the Sheriff’s Department in Beaufort County. “We had flooding, we may have had some surge that we’re not aware of yet, we have downed trees, we have reports of downed trees on houses already.”

Much of downtown Charleston was under water from strong storm surge flooding.

"We're not seeing as much structural damage, which is the good news of that, as much as we’re seeing flooding,” Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina said.

More than 191,000 people in the state are without power as crews from South Carolina Energy & Gas worked overnight and through the day Sunday restoring power.

“Our crews worked through the night, making progress under darkness to restore power to 100,000 customers,” said Bill Turner with South Carolina Energy & Gas. “While this is progress, we still have a lot of work to do.  We will be working around the clock until power has been restored to each and every one of our customers.”

President Obama has declared federal states of emergency for both North and South Carolina.

Meanwhile in Florida, residents are cleaning up and still breathing a sigh of relief after the monster storm stayed far enough offshore to spare the state a direct hit.

“We are all blessed that Matthew stayed off our coast,” said governor Rick Scott.

Initial forecasts showed Matthew making a possible landfall in Florida as a powerful Category 4 storm but a “slight wobble to the east” kept the storm farther from shore.

“It wasn't as bad as everyone predicted," one beach-goer said.

More than 400,000 customers in the Sunshine State are still without power.

Residents of Hampton Roads, Virginia were also warned to stay indoors after heavy rains began to churn late Saturday evening. Vehicles were stalled and residents waded through knee-deep rainwater in parts of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach. 

For the latest track/forecast of Hurricane Matthew, visit the National Hurricane Center.

"We are looking at very significant flooding. Almost every road in the city is impassable," Virginia Beach spokeswoman Erin Sutton told the Weather Channel from the city of almost 500,000 people between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Hurricane Matthew no longer poses a larger threat. The category 1 hurricane is now a post-tropical cyclone and moved away from the East Coast Sunday morning.

However, forecasters say it rivaled Hurricane Floyd. That storm destroyed entire communities with its flood waters in 1999.

They also say it is the most powerful Atlantic storm since 2007.

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