WASHINGTON, N.C. — As the flat-bottomed fishing boat crept into a swirling river that had once been Summer Haven Lane, Tray Tillman scanned the brown floodwaters and half-submerged houses in search of somebody to save. “Today it’s been women and kids,” Mr. Tillman said. Mr. Tillman, 26, a construction foreman, was part of a makeshift rescue flotilla that has plucked hundreds of stranded people from attics, second-floor bedrooms, church vestibules and crumbling decks as relentless, record-setting rains from Tropical Storm Florence flood rivers across the Carolinas and send torrents of water through downtowns miles away from the coast. Harnett County, N.C., which is in the path of a river that was expected to crest overnight at 17 feet above flood stage, was one of many jurisdictions that ordered new evacuations. At least six deaths were confirmed by Saturday afternoon.

Source: New York Times September 15, 2018 15:20 UTC