WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on Florence’s lingering impact (all times local):
3:20 p.m.
A Missouri-based organization is bringing a traditional North Carolina staple to areas trying to recover from the former Hurricane Florence.
Operation BBQ Relief said in a statement Tuesday that it had deployed its group of barbecue enthusiasts to Wilmington and Fayetteville to support recovery efforts by providing hot meals to displaced residents and first responders.
The organization says the Wilmington and Fayetteville deployment locations are capable of producing up to 50,000 meals per day.
The organization was established in 2011 following a devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Since then, the organization has deployed to disasters including South Carolina flooding in 2016 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
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3:20 p.m.
Worried West Virginians got a reprieve when predictions of possible devastation didn’t come to fruition from the remnants of Hurricane Florence.
Before the storm made landfall last week, forecasters said it could result in “life-threatening, catastrophic flooding rainfall” across the mountains of western North Carolina, western Virginia and eastern West Virginia.
Instead, the storm brought 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) of rain in much of West Virginia before moving out early Tuesday. The state is still recovering from June 2016 floods that killed 23 people statewide.
The Greenbrier County community of Rainelle had braced for the worst from Florence, even moving its fleet of trucks to higher ground in anticipation of the storm.
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3:20 p.m.
Sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway have opened now that debris scattered by Florence has been cleared.
A statement from the National Park Service Tuesday said the stretch of parkway known as the “Asheville commuter zone” is now open from milepost 375.7 at Ox Creek Road just north of Asheville to the parkway’s terminus at milepost 469 at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The parkway in North Carolina is also open from milepost 290.8 at Green Hill Road to milepost 317.5 at U.S. Highway 221, including Linville Falls.
The park service said campgrounds in those sections will reopen at noon on Wednesday.
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2:15 p.m.
NBA legend Michael Jordan, who played high school basketball in Wilmington, North Carolina —one of the areas devastated by Hurricane Florence— is donating $2 million to assist residents of the Carolinas.
The 55-year-old owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets is contributing $1 million each to the American Red Cross and the Foundation For The Carolinas’ Hurricane Florence Response Fund.
In addition, more than 100 members of the Hornets organization will help pack disaster food boxes Friday at Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina in Charlotte, North Carolina. The disaster food boxes, which provide individual meals, will be shipped to Wilmington, N.C., Fayetteville, N.C., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., and distributed to those who have been directly impacted by the hurricane. The goal is to deliver 5,000 food boxes.
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2:15 p.m.
North Carolina emergency officials want to call in the Marines as a backup plan to transport vehicles and supplies to the Wilmington area in case two makeshift routes from the west become impassable by rising river waters.
Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon said Tuesday that the state is asking the Marine Corps to make the MV Cape Ray container ship available. He says the ship is returning from a mission in Florida. Wilmington remains largely cut off from the rest of the state because of closed portions of Interstate 40 and U.S. Highway 74.
Trogdon says the ship could be made available as soon as Wednesday to take heavy vehicles and other supplies from the state’s Morehead City port to the Wilmington port.
Trogdon also says a state ferry route connecting to the Wilmington side of the Cape Fear River is being reopened for first responders.
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1:20 p.m.
North Carolina officials say even though the sun is shining in parts of the state, major flooding is continuing in the aftermath of Florence and is expected to worsen in some areas.
Gov. Roy Cooper says 16 rivers are at major flood stage Tuesday with an additional three forecast to peak Wednesday and Thursday.
He says he knows for many North Carolinians it feels like “a nightmare that just won’t end.”
About 10,000 people are in shelters across the state and around 343,000 are without power. Cooper says first responders have reported rescuing and evacuating more than 2,200 people and about 575 animals.
Officials say more than 1,100 roads are closed, 255 of those primary roads. The state’s two major interstates, I-40 and I-95, are closed in many locations.
There have been 26 confirmed fatalities in North Carolina due to the storm.
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1:20 p.m.
Authorities have opened two routes into the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, which for a time was completely cut off by floodwaters.
Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo told a news conference Tuesday that two routes via Interstate 40 are now open.
But Saffo and New Hanover County commissioner Woody White are still asking people to still stay away because those routes could flood again later. They also warned that other routes are still dangerous and sinkholes are developing under some of the flooded roads.
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1 p.m.
Florence has claimed a 26th victim in North Carolina.
Keith Acree is a spokesman for North Carolina Emergency Management.
He said Tuesday that the 26th victim is a 71-year-old man who died Sunday when his car ran off North Carolina Highway 210 in Pender County and into floodwaters.
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1 p.m.
Authorities have opened two routes into the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, which for a time was completely cut off by floodwaters.
Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo told a news conference Tuesday that two routes via Interstate 40 are now open.
But Saffo and New Hanover County commissioner Woody White are still asking people to still stay away because those routes could flood again later. They also warned that other routes are still dangerous and sinkholes are developing under some of the flooded roads.
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12:30 p.m.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that at least two tornadoes spawned by the remnants of Hurricane Florence touched down in Virginia.
One of those was responsible for the death of a man just outside Richmond.
The weather service in Wakefield, Virginia, says the storm has been categorized as an EF2 tornado, with winds of up to 120 miles (about 190 kilometers) per hour.
Meteorologist Mike Rusnak says the weather service also confirmed a second tornado touched down in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, near the border with North Carolina. That tornado was measured as an EF0, with wind speeds of 80 to 85 miles per hour (about 130 to 135 kph).
The second tornado brought down numerous trees and caused some structural damage.
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12:15 p.m.
A flash flood caused by the remnants of Hurricane Florence has killed a man in Virginia.
Virginia State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Keeli Hill says first responders found the man’s pickup truck upside down and submerged in water that had flooded Route 607 in Louisa early Tuesday morning. The area was drenched by thunderstorms and torrential rain overnight.
Hill says it appears that 59-year-old Richard Edward Kelih Jr. of Louisa was attempting to cross the road when his vehicle was overtaken by rushing water.
This is the second death in Virginia attributed to Florence. On Monday, an employee of a flooring company was killed when a powerful tornado touched down in Chesterfield, just south of Richmond, leveling the building.
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Noon
Florence is spreading its misery.
As the South continues to deal with massive flooding from the former hurricane, residents of the heavily populated Northeast are dealing with storm-related headaches of their own.
National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Legro says he received reports Tuesday morning of boats being used to rescue people from rising water in Derry, New Hampshire.
He said the rainfall was fast and furious, with more than 5 inches (13 centimeters) falling in Auburn, New Hampshire, in as little as six hours.
In New York, several roads in counties along the Pennsylvania border have been closed by flash flooding. The National Weather Service says more than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain had fallen by Tuesday morning from the Elmira area to counties in southeastern New York.
The weather service has issued flash flood warnings and watches for more than a dozen counties.
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10:45 a.m.
Heavy rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Florence sent tens of thousands of gallons of untreated wastewater into a tributary of North Carolina’s Cape Fear River basin over the weekend.
The City of Greensboro said in a statement Tuesday that about 63,000 gallons (about 240,000 liters) of untreated wastewater flowed from a sanitary sewer main for about four hours on Sunday. Officials blame infiltration from heavy rainfall accumulated from Florence.
The untreated wastewater entered North Buffalo, a tributary of the Cape Fear River basin. Officials say the area was cleaned and flushed.
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10:30 a.m.
Still stranded by Florence’s floods, Wilmington, North Carolina, residents are lining up by the hundreds for free food, water and tarps as officials try to open new routes to one of the state’s largest cities.
Workers began handing out supplies Tuesday morning using a system that resembled a restaurant drive-thru: Drivers in long lines pulled up to pallets lining a street. They placed an order and left without having to get out.
Todd Tremain needed tarps to cover up spots where Florence’s high winds ripped shingles off his roof. Others got a case of bottled water or military ready-to-eat meals. An olive-green military forklift moved around huge pallets loaded with supplies.
Wilmington is still virtually cut off from the rest of the state, but officials say they’ll open routes as soon as flooding recedes and downed trees and powerlines are cleared away.
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10 a.m.
South Carolina’s governor plans to meet with top Department of Defense leaders to discuss the state’s response to Florence.
The South Carolina National Guard says in a news release that Gov. Henry McMaster was to meet Tuesday with U.S. Air Force Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy at the state’s emergency response headquarters.
O’Shaughnessy is Commander of the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Also scheduled to attend Tuesday’s briefing are the chief of the National Guard Bureau and the adjutant general of South Carolina.
McMaster flew over parts of the state Monday in a National Guard helicopter, observing areas already experiencing flooding from Florence. Officials say flooding could continue to worsen for several days as water flows into the state from flooded areas in North Carolina.
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1 a.m.
Officials are about to begin distributing food, water and tarps in Wilmington, North Carolina, which remains mostly cut off by floodwaters from Hurricane Florence.
County officials say workers will begin handing out supplies to stranded residents in the city of 120,000 people beginning Tuesday morning.
One road was opened into Wilmington at least briefly, and items have been brought into the city by big military trucks and helicopters.
The death toll from Florence has risen to at least 32 people in three states, with 25 fatalities in North Carolina.
Remnants of the once-powerful Category 4 hurricane are now a rainy, windy mass of low pressure. The system has speeded up on a path toward the heavily populated Northeast.
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