Hundreds stranded in North Carolina floods after Hurricane Matthew

LUMBERTON, N.C. - Hundreds of people were rescued by boat and helicopter as floodwaters inundated North Carolina towns on Monday in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, and officials warned that life-threatening flooding from swollen rivers would continue for days.

Matthew, the most powerful Atlantic storm since 2007, was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone on Sunday.

The hurricane killed around 1,000 people in Haiti and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday some Haitian towns and villages had just about been "wiped off the map."

In the United States, the number of fatalities rose to at least 23, with nearly half in North Carolina.

After receiving as much as 18 inches (39 cm) of rain from Matthew over the weekend, North Carolina's skies were clear on Monday, but raging rivers and breached levees posed major problems.

"This storm is not over in North Carolina," Governor Pat McCrory told reporters in Fayetteville. "It's going to be a long, tough journey."

Eleven people have died in the state, officials said. With rivers rising, the governor said he expected deaths to increase.

The flooding prompted President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency in North Carolina on Monday, making federal funding available to affected individuals in 10 counties hit by the storm, the White House said in a statement.

Some 2,000 residents were stuck in their homes and on rooftops in Lumberton, off the Lumber River, after the city suddenly flooded on Monday morning, McCrory said. Air and water rescues would continue throughout the day, he said.

Many of the homes and businesses in Lumberton were flooded with several feet of water on Monday afternoon and residents were seen paddling about the town in small skiffs.

Major flooding was expected this week in central and eastern towns along the Lumber, Cape Fear, Neuse and Tar rivers. The National Weather Service said the Neuse River would crest on Friday night and forecast "disastrous flooding."

Emergency officials in North Carolina's Lenoir County issued a mandatory evacuation order on Monday afternoon for residents and businesses along the Neuse River.

"COULD BE FLOODED TOMORROW"

Many coastal and inland communities remained under water from storm surge or overrun rivers and creeks.

McCrory told reporters that he had met with an elderly woman at a shelter on Monday who lost everything to floods.

"She's sitting in a school cafeteria at this point in time crying and wondering what her life is going to be all about," he said. "It breaks your heart."

In neighboring South Carolina, Governor Nikki Haley warned that waterways were quickly reaching capacity around the state.

"What might not be flooded today could be flooded tomorrow," Haley said at a news conference.

She said there had been at least three storm-related deaths, including one in which a person in a vehicle was swept away by floodwaters.

Warnings were also issued over downed power lines. An 89-year-old man in Florida was killed on Monday after touching a downed line, officials said.

While power was being restored in some areas, about 1.1 million people were still without power in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia.

A federal judge on Monday granted a request from Florida's Democratic Party to extend the state's voter registration deadline by one more day, through Wednesday, because of the hurricane. Republican Governor Rick Scott had rejected demands from Democrats to extend the deadline.

Meanwhile, a hurricane watch was issued for Bermuda, which could be threatened by another tropical system, Nicole, that is expected to reach the Atlantic island later this week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Hurricane Matthew closes in on Florida as death toll hits 265

ORLANDO/MIAMI - Matthew, the first major hurricane threatening a direct hit on the United States in more than 10 years, blasted the Bahamas on Thursday as it headed for Florida after killing at least 265 people in the Caribbean, mostly in Haiti.

Carrying extremely dangerous winds of 140 mph (220 kph), the storm pounded the northwestern part of the Bahamas en route to Florida's Atlantic coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Matthew's sustained winds later dropped to 130 mph, but it was likely to remain a Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity as it closed in on the United States, where it could either take direct aim at Florida or tear along the state's coast through Friday night, the Miami-based center said.

Few storms with winds as powerful as Matthew's have struck Florida, and the NHC warned of "potentially disastrous impacts."

The US National Weather Service said the storm could be the most powerful to strike northeast Florida in 118 years.

Hurricane conditions were expected in parts of Florida late on Thursday and a dangerous storm surge is expected to reach up to 11 feet (3.35 meters) along the Florida coast, Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the Miami-based NHC, said on CNN.

"What we know is that most of the lives lost in hurricanes is due to storm surge," he said.

Some 261 people were killed in Haiti, local officials said, and thousands were displaced after the storm flattened homes, uprooted trees and inundated neighborhoods earlier in the week. Four people were killed in the Dominican Republic, which neighbors Haiti.

As the storm passed near the Bahamas capital of Nassau, howling gusts of wind brought down palms and other trees and ripped shingles off the rooftops of many houses. The eye of the storm was located over the western end of Grand Bahama Island on Thursday evening.

It was too soon to predict where Matthew might do the most of its damage in the United States, but the NHC's hurricane warning extended up the Atlantic coast from southern Florida through Georgia and into South Carolina. More than 12 million people in the United States were under hurricane watches and warnings, according to the Weather Channel.

The last major hurricane, classified as a storm bearing sustained winds of more than 110 mph (177 kph), to make landfall on U.S. shores was Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

Jeff Masters, a veteran hurricane expert, said on his Weather Underground website (www.wunderground.com) that Matthew's wind threat was especially serious at Cape Canaveral, which juts into the Atlantic off central Florida.

"If Matthew does make landfall along the Florida coast, this would be the most likely spot for it. Billions of dollars of facilities and equipment are at risk at Kennedy Space Center and nearby bases, which have never before experienced a major hurricane," Masters wrote.

NASA and the US Air Force, which operate the nation's primary space launch site at Cape Canaveral, have already taken steps to safeguard personnel and equipment.

A team of 116 employees were bunkered down inside Kennedy Space Center's Launch Control Center to ride out the hurricane.

"We've had some close calls, but as far as I know it's the first time we've had the threat of a direct hit," NASA spokesman George Diller said by email from the hurricane bunker.

"AS SERIOUS AS IT GETS"

Roads in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina were jammed, and gas stations and food stores ran out of supplies as the storm approached early on Thursday.

Florida Governor Rick Scott warned there could be "catastrophic" damage if Matthew slammed directly into the state and urged some 1.5 million people there to evacuate.

"If you're reluctant to evacuate, just think about all the people... already killed," Scott said at a news conference. "Time is running out. This is clearly either going to have a direct hit or come right along the coast."

Scott, who activated several thousand National Guard troops to help deal with the storm, warned that millions of people were likely to be left without power.

Florida, Georgia and South Carolina opened shelters for evacuees. As of Thursday morning, more than 3,000 people were being housed in 60 shelters in Florida, Scott said.

Those three states as well as North Carolina declared states of emergency, empowering their governors to mobilize the National Guard.

President Barack Obama called the governors of the four states on Thursday to discuss preparations for the storm. He declared a state of emergency in Florida and South Carolina, a move that authorized federal agencies to coordinate disaster relief efforts.

"Hurricane Matthew is as serious as it gets. Listen to local officials, prepare, take care of each other," Obama warned people in the path of the storm in a posting on Twitter.

Hundreds of passenger flights were canceled in south Florida, and cancellations were expected to spread north in coming days along the storm's path, airlines including American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines said.

At 8 p.m. EDT (midnight GMT), Matthew was about 75 miles (120 km) east of Florida's West Palm Beach, the hurricane center said. It was heading northwest at about 13 mph (20 kph) and was expected to continue on this track through Thursday and early Friday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday Matthew, the strongest hurricane in the Caribbean since Felix struck Central America in 2007, whipped Cuba and Haiti with 140 mph (225 kph) winds and torrential rain, pummeling towns and destroying livestock, crops and homes.

In Florida, fuel stations on Thursday posted "out of gas" signs after cars waited in long lines to fill up. At a Subco gas station in Orlando, the pumps ran dry on Wednesday afternoon.

The shop was a stopping point for coastal residents seeking shelter inland. Among them was Jonas Sylvan, 44, of Melbourne, Florida, who planned to hole up in a hotel with his wife, two daughters and dog. "We're just trying to get away from the coast," he said. "It's safer here."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama declares state of emergency in Georgia

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Georgia on Thursday, adding it to the states of Florida and South Carolina as being eligible for federal hurricane relief.

He ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts, authorizing the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief as Hurricane Matthew bore down on the US coast.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com