Residents in the eastern U.S. coastal states of North and South Carolina struggled to recover from Hurricane Florence Tuesday as the remnants of the storm moved up the eastern seaboard, dumping heavy rain that triggered new warnings of widespread flooding.
Wilmington, North Carolina, one of largest cities in the state, is still mostly cut off by floodwaters, which are expected to keep rising there and in other areas in the region.
Some 1,500 roads remained closed in North Carolina, where Florence dumped 91 centimeters of rain since Thursday, hindering relief efforts.
"Flooding is still going to be a concern into the weekend and into next week," said National Weather Service forecaster Hal Austin.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation posted on Twitter Tuesday that "Road conditions are still changing" and "What's open now may become impassable."
Flash flood watches and warnings are posted from Virginia into Vermont and New Hampshire through Tuesday.
Florence is now what forecasters call a post-tropical cyclone, with top sustained winds of 35 kilometers per hour.
Several tornadoes damaged buildings in the Richmond, Virginia, area Monday afternoon, killing at least one person.
At least 32 deaths are blamed on the storm, the majority in North Carolina. One victim was a 1-year-old boy who was swept from his mother's arms by floodwater.
Hundreds of thousands of homes remained without power on Monday.
President Donald Trump praised his administration's recovery efforts and predicted Democratic politicians would try to discredit them.
