Florence plows into Carolinas inland, leaving five dead, states flooded

Florence plowed on Friday into the Carolinas and lumbered slowly inland, knocking down trees, gorging rivers, dumping sheets of rain, and leaving five people dead before it was downgraded to a tropical storm still capable of wreaking havoc.

Though Florence’s shrieking winds diminished from hurricane force as it came ashore, forecasters said the sheer size of the 350-mile-wide storm and its painfully slow progress across North and South Carolina in the coming days could leave much of the region under water.

The dead included a mother and baby who were killed when a tree fell on their home in Wilmington, North Carolina. The child’s injured father was taken to a hospital. In the state’s Pender County, a woman died of a heart attack; paramedics trying to reach her were blocked by debris.

Source: Reuters