North Carolina Resident Surveys Damage
A gallery owner in Nags Head, N.C., a beach community, surveys the damage to his shop after Hurricane Matthew.
By ELSA BUTLER on October 9, 2016. Photo by Susan Evans. Watch in Times Video »The Latest
■ Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina said Monday that an urgent rescue effort was underway in Lumberton, where a levee breach in the wake of Hurricane Matthew forced people to their rooftops.
■ The storm’s death toll in the United States has climbed to at least 21.
■ The toll in Haiti, which took a direct hit, has been hard to measure. As many as 1,000 people have died, according to a Reuters reportbased on information from civil protection and local officials. Along with hundreds of lives, the storm wiped out much of the progress that an isolated city, Jérémie, had been making. Read more from Azam Ahmed »
■ Bands of heavy rain produced record-breaking flooding in parts of eastern North Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center, which may result in life-threatening flooding and flash flooding elsewhere in the region.
North Carolina: Residents Forced Onto Rooftops
Governor McCrory, addressing reporters in Raleigh on Monday, said a levee breach before dawn had endangered about 1,500 residents in Lumberton.
“Floodwaters are rising very quickly,” said Mr. McCrory, who added that water was knee-deep in many places. “We do have people on the roofs as we speak, and we have a lot of helicopters and boats that have been deployed that are, at this point in time, rescuing them.”
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction above Lumberton, the agency said, “to provide a safe environment for disaster relief operations.”
Mr. McCrory also reported 10 fatalities in North Carolina, raising Hurricane Matthew’s death toll in the United States to at least 21. At least 1,400 people have been rescued since Hurricane Matthew struck the state.
The storm was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone early Sunday morning as it hit North Carolina and Virginia with a weakened but still powerful punch.
— ALAN BLINDER
Floodwaters on the Move
Several rivers in eastern North Carolina broke out of their banks on Monday, after weekend rainfalls of up to 16 inches in places, the National Weather Service reported. Some rivers reached record heights, while on others, waters are expected to keep rising for days in some areas, as the floods move downstream.
The Cape Fear River south of Fayetteville crested Monday at more than 26 feet above flood stage; farther downstream, near Chinquapin, the same river was forecast to rise into Wednesday.
To the northeast, the Neuse River reached more than 8 feet above flood stage near Goldsboro on Monday, and was projected to rise another 2 feet, peaking on Tuesday near its record. Downstream, near Kinston, the Neuse rose more than 7 feet above flood stage, and was expected to climb 5 feet more, not cresting until Saturday.
The Lumber River at Lumberton rose 4 feet higher than it had ever been measured before. The Little River at Manchester broke its previous record by 3 feet.
Several South Carolina rivers also reached moderate or major flood stage, the Weather Service reported, but conditions there were not as severe.
— RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
South Carolina: Evacuation Orders Lifted
Five days after South Carolina residents began fleeing the coastline ahead of Hurricane Matthew, Gov. Nikki R. Haley on Monday lifted the final evacuation orders in the state.
Ms. Haley has been ending the evacuations in phases — on Sunday, she allowed people to return to Charleston, the state’s second-largest city — and her office said Monday that residents could return to Horry and Georgetown counties beginning at 8 a.m.
But the state cautioned that returning to the evacuation zone would not necessarily be simple or quick.
“Returning residents are encouraged to exercise patience and expect lengthy travel times, blocked roadways and detours back to evacuated areas and are asked not to drive around barricades or use emergency lanes that are needed for first responders,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities in South Carolina have attributed three deaths to the storm, including two in Florence County, northwest of Myrtle Beach.
— JESS BIDGOOD, in Charleston
Hurricane Matthew’s Trail of Damage
Sean Rayford for The New York Times
And Now, the Cleanup: Homeowners’ Next Steps
The American Red Cross has published a list of safety tips for homeowners returning to property damaged in hurricanes.
Once cleanup begins, taking photographs of damaged or destroyed property before it is discarded provides a record for use in making insurance claims, says Ann Carrns, who writes the Your Money Adviser consumer finance column for The Times.
Scenes From Hurricane Matthew’s Capricious Path
In Haiti, the Bahamas and Florida, the storm left behind stories of disaster and of disaster narrowly averted. Here are some of them »
Storm Tracker
SEVERITY Category 4 3 2 1 Tropical storm Densely populated areas
On Monday, Matthew, which had been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, was well offshore, bringing some rain to the Northeast. By evening, it was expected to be off the Canadian maritime provinces.
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