Hurricane Matthew kills 7 in NC, leaves historic flooding in its wake

Oct. 09--RALEIGH -- Hurricane Matthew continues to blow as a post-tropical cyclone off the coast of North Carolina on Sunday morning, but the rain that caused severe flooding throughout the eastern part of the state has stopped.

The sun is returning to the state as the task of drying out and cleaning up after the storm begins.

Matthew was blamed for at least 7 deaths after as much as 16 inches of rain fell in parts of the state throughout Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses remain without electricity as the combination of sodden ground and gusty winds brought down countless trees.

"As the sun rises in North Carolina and the blue sky returns, our state is facing major destruction and sadly loss of life," Gov. Pat McCrory said at a press conference Sunday morning. "This storm is not over for North Carolina."

The Sandhills, which was still recovering from flooding rains from a week earlier, was among the hardest hit areas of the state. Nearly 15 inches of rain fell at Fayetteville Regional Airport, and numerous roads remain blocked by water or fallen trees.

As of Sunday morning, there had been more than 900 water rescues in the state -- 562 in Cumberland County alone, McCrory said. "And they're going on as we speak right now," he said. More than 200 people have been rescued from a flooded neighborhood in the Edgecombe County town of Pinetops, McCrory said, including eight who were plucked from roof tops by a Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter.

All seven deaths were related to vehicles that tried to traverse flooded roadways, McCrory said.

Two occured in Johnston County, where Smithfield received a foot of rain. One was 19-year-old Diamond Shuntelle Bennett of Millbrook Street in Selma whose car was swept away in flood waters on Interstate 95 near milemarker 85 on Saturday night, according to State Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Jeff Gordon. Bennett was found shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday.

The other was one of five people who got stuck inside a Nissan Versa that became submerged in flood waters on Cornwallis Road near N.C. 42 in the Cleveland community, Gordon said.

"Four escaped and were able to cling to trees until rescue arrived," Gordon said. "The other they're still looking for and is presumed deceased."

Smaller creeks and rivers, including Crabtree Creek in Raleigh, have crested, but the larger rivers are still rising downstream. The Neuse River is expected to hit record levels at Smithfield and Goldsboro sometime Monday, and the North East Cape Fear River isn't expected to crest near Chinquapin until Wednesday.

"This is going to be a prolonged event," McCrory said. "Rocky Mount, Goldsboro, Kinston, Greenville -- every town in between. We will have very serious issues."

About 489,000 Duke Energy customers in North Carolina were still powerless by 11 a.m. Sunday, according to the company's website, including more than 101,000 Wake County customers. Electric cooperatives reported about 270,000 outages as of 11 a.m. Sunday.

More than 4,200 people have sought refuge in the 83 storm shelters opened for the storm, McCrory said. About 70 people were evacuated from the Comfort Inn in Southport overnight after someone raised concerns that part of the building might fail.

The N.C. Department of Transportation has closed Interstate 40 in four places from Raleigh to Pender County. As of 8:45 a.m. Sunday, I-40 was closed from exit 309 to 312 east of Raleigh, 334 to 341 east of Benson, 364 to 367 near Warsaw in Duplin County and at exit 406 near Saint Helena.

I-95 was closed from exits 17 to 22 in Lumberton, 79 to 87 near Benson, 100 in Selma and exits 40 to 55 near Fayetteville in Cumberland County.

In the Triangle, numerous streets and roads remain blocked by water and fallen trees. Raleigh police warn that too many traffic lights are out in the city for officers to direct traffic at all of them and urged motorists to be patient and courteous.

In Johnston County, officials are urging residents to conserve water due to water line breaks in the southeastern part of the county. Because of a lack of water pressure in the distribution system, county officials are urging customers whose water has been restored to boil water intended for human consumption or use bottled water until further notice.

The heavy rain stressed dams in the region, including Lake Benson dam, which Raleigh officials say came within two feet of being overtopped by water late Saturday. About 8:40 a.m. Sunday, city officials said water levels at both the Lake Benson and Lake Wheeler dams were "improving by the hour," but urged residents downstream to be prepared "in the even conditions change."

McCrory said he was requesting an expedited major disaster declaration from the federal govenment, which would qualify the state for additional federal assistance. That would include making grants available to people without flood insurance and help to state and local governments in repairing roads and bridges and cleaning up debris.

Flood warnings remain in effect in most eastern counties, including the Triangle.

A tropical storm warning remains up for the coast between Cape Fear and Duck. At 11 a.m., the storm was centered 100 miles east of Cape Hatteras and was moving east at 15 mph. But it still packed sustained winds of 75 mph at its core, and the National Hurricane Center warned that strong winds and sound-side storm surge flooding continued over the Outer Banks.

Staff writer Paul A. Specht contributed.

Richard Stradling: 919-829-4739, @RStradling

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