Interstate drivers asked to avoid North Carolina

Florence, which remained a hurricane for around half a day after making landfall on September 14, but is now a tropical storm, has deluged the Carolinas with rainfall, storm surges, and high winds.

It diminished from hurricane force as it came ashore, but forecasters said the 560km-wide storm's slow progress across North and SC could leave much of the region under water in the coming days.

In Wilmington, a city of about 120,000 on North Carolina's Atlantic coastline, along the Cape Fear River that is home to historic mansions, streets were strewn with downed tree limbs and carpeted with leaves and other debris.

Other markets that could be affected by Hurricane Florence include cotton (7 percent of USA cotton is grown in the Carolinas) and especially tobacco, as North Carolina is the largest tobacco-growing state.

As Florence lingers over east SC, officials are keeping an eye on areas prone to flooding.

Gas stations were abandoned and fallen trees made many roads impassable.

"There's nowhere to get out over here", resident Tonya Moore said Friday.

"Second, know that water is rising fast everywhere, even in places that don't typically flood".

In Swansboro, North Carolina, almost 34 inches (85 centimeters) of rain had fallen by Sunday afternoon and 20 other places in North Carolina had at least 20 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

In all, hundreds of people have been rescued in New Bern, according to Gov. Roy Cooper.

Kevin Knox and his family were rescued from their flooded brick home with the help of Army Sgt. Johan Mackie, part of a team using a phone app to locate people in distress. "We still have about 100 that want to be rescued and we have about 1,200 in the shelters", Mayor Dana Outlaw told CNN.

Officials said the storm can still be devastating despite being downgraded to a tropical storm, noting how some areas of the state have received around two feet of water.

Scores of neighbors faced similar damage after the water crested near the tops of their doorways.

Moore said her family evacuated to her mother's nearby home, where they have been safe and the electricity was still working.

Those who ignore the order could be on their own, officials said, reported the Charlotte Observer; rescue crews may not be sent into flooded areas that were under the order.

And a fifth person reportedly died of a heart attack inside her home in Hampstead, North Carolina, the New York Post reported.

Betty Walters says she has health issues that are hard to manage at a shelter.

U.S. media later said a man in Lenoir County died after heavy winds knocked him down as he tried to check on his dogs.

A member of the US Coast Guard walks down Mill Creek Road checking houses after tropical storm Florence hit Newport N.C., Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018.

More than 22,600 people were housed in 150 North Carolina shelters, such as churches, schools and a basketball arena.

Asked if he had spoken with President Donald Trump -a politically ally whom McMaster backed very early in the 2016 campaign- the governor says the president reassured him SC would get federal assistance to dig out.

The centre of the storm moved slowly westward on Saturday across the Carolinas, bringing further heavy rain and flooding, the US National Hurricane Centre says. The highway could be flooded near Fayetteville and near the SC state line because of expected flooding in the Cape Fear and Lumber rivers.

In Fayetteville, a North Carolina city of about 210,000 people about 140 kilometres inland, authorities told thousands of residents near the Cape Fear River and Little River to get out of their homes by Sunday afternoon because of the flood risk.