CONWAY, S.C. _ With a plodding pace belying still-unspent fury, Tropical Storm Florence pushed deeper into the Carolinas on Saturday, inundating homes, toppling trees and pushing rivers far beyond their banks as rescuers rushed to keep pace.
More than 1 million people, mainly in North Carolina, were without power a day after Florence reached land a few miles east of Wilmington as a Category 1 hurricane. On Saturday, the storm was crawling westward at about 2 mph, unleashing havoc as it went.
Even as the winds abated, the waters rose. And rose.
Floodwaters surged over roads, prompting the closing of Interstate 95 just north of the North Carolina border. With more than 2 feet of rain having already fallen in coastal areas, and with drenching rainfall forecast for days to come in the western mountains, officials considered more evacuations.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper confirmed at least five storm-related deaths, and warned people who fled their homes against going back too soon.
"If you are safe, stay put. ... Don't go back until this storm passes," he urged at a briefing Saturday. "This system is unloading epic amounts of rainfall."
The triple punch of falling rain, rising rivers and coastal storm surges was already triggering catastrophic floods. Hundreds were rescued in New Bern, a city of 30,000 at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers.
"This is one of the most devastating hurricanes we've ever had," Mayor Dana Outlaw told CNN.
The White House said President Donald Trump issued a disaster declaration for North Carolina a day earlier, freeing up funds for housing and home repairs.
In South Carolina, emergency managers were watching several northeastern rivers that flooded two years ago during Hurricane Matthew, destroying homes and government offices.
One of those was the Waccamaw River in South Carolina's Horry County, which had reached 8.9 feet by Saturday; it floods at 11 feet.
To give a sense of the scope of inundation to come, the river's crest was expected at 19.1 feet, beating the record 17.9 feet set during Hurricane Matthew. The county has a population of 325,000, about 20,000 in the riverfront county seat of Conway.
In North Carolina, unrelenting rains were expected to swell the Cape Fear River to 62 feet next week, 3 feet higher than during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The river runs through Fayetteville _ home to the Army's Fort Bragg _ where officials opened emergency shelters and urged riverfront residents to evacuate.
Major flooding was also expected to the east in Kinston on the Neuse River, expected to reach 27 feet by Monday, nearing a record 28.3 feet set during Hurricane Matthew. To the north, officials were monitoring the Tar River, and sandbagging the French Broad River to the west and the Lumber River to the southeast.
"If you live in a floodplain and planned on staying, you might need to re-evaluate," said Joel Cline, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center. "There's a lot left to this even though the winds have died down and it's inland."
Coastal Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds will likely become bottlenecks, filling with runoff faster than they can drain into the ocean, he said.
"I don't see any portion of the state of North or South Carolina that's not going to be impacted in some way," Cline said.
����
(Megerian reported from New Bern, N.C., and Jarvie from Fayetteville, N.C.)
