Hurricane Matthew leaves "Katrina-like" situation in North Carolina
New flooding triggered President Obama to declare a federal emergency in North Carolina, Hurricane Matthew has killed at least 29 people across the Southeast. Fourteen of those deaths are in North Carolina.
At least four rivers in the state have risen to above to near record levels. Rescue teams are back at work Tuesday along the Lumber River in Lumberton, which has no power, water or sewer, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.
Rescuers across North Carolina are bringing scores of stranded people to safety by air, truck and by boat.
Kenneth Washington was sleeping when water began rising through his Lumberton home. When he woke up, he started seeing water flood in.
“And what’d you think?” Strassmann asked.
“Time to get out of here,” Washington said.
Washington grabbed his dog, Ceasar, when rescuers came for him.
Two days after Matthew’s rain stopped, the nearby Lumber River overflowed its banks. Water started pouring into this city of 22,000 people, and that’s when rescue teams from New York, Ohio, and New Jersey showed up here to pull people to safety.
The rescuers expect to remove roughly 1,000 people in Lumberton – many of them elderly or physically unable to leave on their own.
Kim and Tiffany Powers used to live in Lumberton and donated what supplies they could grab.
“We brought clothes, we brought socks,” said Tiffany Powers.
“Is this worse than you thought it would be?” Strassmannn asked.
“Oh, worse than we ever thought it would be. This is Katrina-like,” Tiffany Powers said.
In nearby Princeville, the rising Tar River has prompted a mandatory evacuation, sending more than 200 people into a Red Cross shelter at a high school.
“There are a lot of people hurting right now in this region. I met with an 80-year-old woman who just lost everything,” said Governor Pat McCrory. “And she’s sitting in a school cafeteria at this point in time crying and wondering what her life is going to be all about.”
The Lumber River is expected to crest Tuesday. Once that happens, it’ll take at least another week to drain the city.