Deadly storm threatens mid-Atlantic region
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- At least three people are dead as remnants of Subtropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the season, pounds the mid-Atlantic Thursday night with flash floods possible. Two people were killed Wednesday by a mudslide in North Carolina while another died in a flood in central Virginia.
Search and rescue teams from across Virginia spent the day combing an area outside of Charlottesville looking for a couple who were swept away during Wednesday night's violent storm.
"There is one vehicle still unaccounted for and they haven't found it down the creek anywhere yet," said Captain Allen Carwile of the Lynchburg Fire Department.
Search-and-rescue teams think that the car that's missing would have been swept off of a road into Ivy Creek. Crews are going step by step with sticks checking piles of debris. They are looking for any signs of the two people that were believed to be inside the missing car.
CBS News has learned that 6 to 10 inches of rain came down very fast and created a flash flood and a lot of water inundated the road. The debris is waist high and well above the creek bed. It was a torrent of water that would have come on in a flash.
Authorities have declared a local emergency after powerful flood waters washed out large portions of county roads.
"Don't drive through standing water," Carwile urged. "Turn around and don't drown."
Police in Boone, North Carolina, say heavy rains caused a hillside to give way causing a massive mudslide which led to a gas explosion leaving one house in splinters. Two people were killed.
Vicki Powers watched as the river near her home creeped 50 yards from her front steps.
"Kinda scary ... it was pretty scary actually because it was like something creeping up on you, and it just kept getting worse," she said.
