North Carolina sees major flooding in aftermath of Hurricane Matthew

Hurricane Matthew hit eastern North Carolina Saturday, and the state continues to feel its impact with major flood damage being reported across multiple counties. 

According to Monday press releases from the office of Gov. Pat McCrory, more than 800,000 power outages occurred this weekend, water rescue teams saved 1,400 people and 11 people have died so far. As of Monday morning, around 465,000 outages remained statewide. 

UNC research professor Gavin Smith is the director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence and was the assistant director for Hazard Mitigation in North Carolina when Hurricane Floyd hit in 1999. 

He said the damage of the two hurricanes is comparable.

“Reports are still coming in, but it is looking like a significant flood disaster reminiscent of Hurricane Floyd,” he said. “Water moving downstream is adding to the flooded communities like Kinston, and the flooding damage could even exceed Floyd.”

McCrory said in a statement citizens should continue to exercise caution in the aftermath of the storm. 

“As we have learned from previous hurricanes, the aftermath of the storm is often the deadliest," he said. "People who live near rivers, streams and levees must take extreme caution as the greatest threat to human life is rivers flooding in the coming days.”

Smith said the next step for the state of North Carolina is to coordinate disaster relief efforts with Federal Emergency Management Agency and build resilience, or whatever is needed to control damage and help citizens in future situations. 

Rick Luettich, director of the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, said relief efforts are often a challenge.

“After Hurricane Floyd, people that lived in flood-prone areas were actually offered money to have their home or property bought, so they could move to an area that was less flood-prone,” he said. “While that seems like a good idea, a lot of people are very attached to where they live, so it is difficult.”

Luettich said building resilience is even more important now because of the constantly changing climate.

“With the warming climate, we’re going to have more precipitation in the future, making these adaptation and resilience activities all the more important,” he said.

Smith said that other states, specifically Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, have been hit hard. He said Haiti continues to feel the impact of the storm. 

“The devastation on Haiti has been lost on people,” he said. “Their buildings aren’t up to code, they are still recovering from the 2010 earthquake … telling the story of Haiti — and being able to understand how devastating it was — is an important story to tell.”

@Jared_Webby

state@dailytarheel.com