LUMBERTON, N.C. – Over the weekend, a driver in North Carolina was killed when they drove their car into raging floods and were swept away. More rain is expected for the already wet area over the next few days, so flooding will still be a possibility.
Lumberton Rescue and EMS Inc. said on Facebook that Old Whiteville Road in Lumberton near the county line had to be closed on Saturday because of heavy rain and floods.
But police said the driver, who was not named, drove into the floodwaters and died when their car was swept downstream.
Government officials said in the Facebook post that they thought the water was between 8 and 12 inches deep.
“It needs to be said again,” authorities said. “Never drive into flooded roadways and obey road closed signage.”
North Carolina and South Carolina have put up flood alerts.
The FOX Forecast Center says that the Carolinas will see more rain and thunderstorms in the next few days. This makes experts worried that more flooding could happen in places that were already badly affected by Tropical Storm Debby, which killed several people.
This comes after heavy rain caused many reports of flash floods on Saturday, including the one that killed one person in Lumberton, North Carolina.
The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) at NOAA has marked places in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic that could flood in the next few days.
The WPC, on the other hand, says that some parts of northeastern Georgia and the Carolinas will likely flood on Sunday.
Cities like Charleston in South Carolina and Wilmington in North Carolina are in this group.
Along with the flood warnings, many flood watches and warnings have been posted across the area as rivers and streams continue to rise after Tropical Storm Debby.
Flooding is more likely now that a cold front has stopped moving. This will likely cause several rounds of heavy rain and thunderstorms.
Those flood warnings will stay in place until further notice.
The FOX Forecast Center doesn’t think that the Carolinas will get huge amounts of rain over the next few days.
In most places, the extra rain will only be about an inch or two.
But parts of the Carolinas closer to the coast could get an extra 2 to 3 inches of rain, and some places could get even more.
Friday, a flash flood emergency was declared.
Greensboro, North Carolina, was put under a Flash Flood Emergency late Friday night after up to 4 inches of rain fell. The National Weather Service said that several cars were stuck in floodwater and that some of the people inside had to be rescued. People also thought that Friendly Lake’s dam might have broken in some places.
Reports of the storm also said that a bridge near Gaffney, South Carolina, washed out in part.
This week, Debby made a long trip across the East Coast and killed at least eight people. The first time it hit land in the U.S. was last Monday in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane. The second time was Thursday in South Carolina as a tropical storm.