Hurricane Florence knocks out power for more than 400,000 people in North Carolina
Several parts of North Carolina and South Carolina were flooded even before Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina on Friday morning.
The rains before the storm turned sideways on Thursday, causing rivers to swell up and floodwaters soon filled the streets.
The National Weather Service said that despite Florence being downgraded to a Category 1 storm, it is expected to cause a 10-foot storm surge, with "catastrophic" flooding expected over parts of the Carolinas. The hurricane, as it reached toward the US east coast, has already left hundreds of thousands of residents without power, according to reports.
More than 400,000 people are without power in North Carolina, according to authorities. The top counties affected are Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Onslow and Pamlico.