Florence, now a tropical storm, leaves at least four dead

So far, officials have attributed two deaths to the Category 1 storm: Someone in Lenoir County died as they plugged in a generator while a woman suffered a heart attack and emergency crews were unable to reach her in time.

"The fact is this storm is deadly and we know we are days away from an ending", Cooper said. The storm is expected to dump up to 86 trillion litres of water on seven states as it lumbers thru the mumble over the following week.Florence is one of several storms raging around the globe lovely now.

Tropical Storm Florence has torn apart buildings, drowned streets, torn up trees, submerged cars and knocked out energy for millions of properties within the Carolinas.The worn storm is forcing ocean water onto land and backing up rivers and streams, in what meteorologists consult with as a storm surge.

Hurricane Florence is now located about 15 miles north-northeast of Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. Calls for help multiplied as the wind picked up and the tide rolled in.

It has trapped people in flooded homes, with citizen swift-water rescue teams from out of state joining local emergency professionals around the clock to try and bring them to safety.

Dan Eudy said he and his brother were awakened on Thursday night by the sound of a boat ramming against his front porch. They ventured out in life jackets into the waste-deep water to tie the boat and another floating by to a tree. "We got thrown into mailboxes, houses, trees", said Holt, who had stayed at home because of a doctor's appointment that was later canceled. Cooper described the amount of rainfall from the storm as a "1,000-year event".

Shaken after seeing waves crashing in the Neuse River just outside his house in the town of New Bern, hurricane veteran Tom Ballance wished he had evacuated.

The tidal cycle also affects storm surge, which is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, over and above the predicted astronomical tides.

Hurricane Florence, weakened but still unsafe, crashed into the Carolinas on Friday as a giant, slow-moving storm that stranded residents with floodwaters and swamped part of the town of New Bern at the beginning of what could be a days-long deluge.

North Carolina officials say large-scale search-and-rescue operations are underway in coastal areas as floodwaters from Florence spread across the state and road conditions worsen.

Atlantic Beach, located on the state's Outer Banks barrier islands, had received 30 inches (76 cm) of rain, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The White House said on Friday that President Donald Trump would travel to the region next week unless his trip would disrupt clean-up and rescue efforts.

Nearly 800,000 people are reported to be without power already in North Carolina, and officials have warned restoring electricity could take days or even weeks. SC recorded its first death from the storm, with officials saying a 61-year-old woman was killed when her vehicle hit a tree that had fallen across a highway. He said parts of North Carolina had seen storm surges - the bulge of seawater pushed ashore by the hurricane - as high as 10 feet.

Florence was one of two major storms threatening millions of people on opposite sides of the world.

Meanwhile, Super Typhoon Mangkhut has begun pummelling northern areas of the Philippines carrying wind gusts reaching 270kph.