The number of victims of the latest storm to hit the U.S., Hurricane Florence reached 17 on Sunday and is still on the rise, officials inform.
Among those who lost their lives to the storm was a 3-month-old who died when a tree crashed into a mobile home, splitting it down its center, said Police Captain Jon Leatherwood. The home was around 240 miles from where the hurricane made landfall early Friday.
Another victim was also a young child, whom officials couldn’t save. The vehicle the 1-year-old was in was swept away in floodwaters.
As Florence pushed further inland through the weekend, flash flood watches were posted in Virginia and southern West Virginia, Fox News informs. Authorities warn that the worst is yet to come. Over the next few days, North Carolina is to be hit with more rains while many rivers will most likely reach flooding levels.
People there are advised not to travel in the state as the flooding is already very bad. A number of highways are closed while some cities are unreachable.
The North Carolina governor’s office said over 900 water rescuers have been reported in the state, adding, however, that a lot more people need help, CNN reports.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Florence was centered about 25 miles south-southeast of Greenville, South Carolina on Sunday evening, moving west at 14 mph. It added that by the hurricane’s end, around 40 inches of rain will fall in southeastern North Carolina and the northeastern tip of South Carolina.
In other parts of the Carolinas, about 20 inches of rain are expected which will cause numerous rivers to flood by the end of this week. The storm should move up into West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and parts of New England by Tuesday, but considerably less rain is expected there.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the Carolinas were left without power as a result of the storm.
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