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Flooding from the
Tar River had been expected in Princeville, which was founded in
1885 and believed to be the oldest U.S. town incorporated by
freed slaves, and most of its 2,000 residents evacuated.
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory described a dramatic rise in
the water level in the town, long been plagued by flooding and
devastated by floods after Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
Areas that had about a foot of water on Thursday morning were
covered in up to 12 feet by afternoon, he said.
"Princeville is basically under water at this time," McCrory
told a news conference after flying over the town. "You gotta
see it to believe it."
The governor praised the town's residents for heeding evacuation
orders, saying no one there had died.
However, McCrory announced two additional fatalities after the
storm death toll rose to 20 late on Wednesday. The latest
victims included someone who drowned in Lenoir County after
driving around a barricade for a washed-out roadway. Most of the
state's deaths from the hurricane have been drownings, he said.
"Stay off the roads," McCrory said. "Stay out of the water."
More than 30 deaths in the United States have been blamed on
Matthew, with a fourth death announced in South Carolina by that
state's governor on Thursday. Before hitting the southeast U.S.
coast, the fierce storm killed around 1,000 people on its
rampage through Haiti last week.
The recovery effort in central and eastern North Carolina is
expected to take weeks or months. So far, the federal government
has disbursed about $2.6 million to individual flooding victims
and approved $5 million for emergency road repairs.
(Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by
Tom Brown)
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