One former Thunder Bay resident is bracing for Tropical Storm Florence as it raged over the weekend.
Isaac Clair is several hours inland in Newton, North Carolina and tells us his area hasn’t been told to evacuate yet, but they’re hunkering down and fearing there could be flash floods.
“The rain has not stopped since really, really, early on Saturday. It has been just a downpour for two straight days, and we’re expected to get a whole other day of it, at least.”
The Newton area is currently under a flash flood warning which will be in effect until Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper says the storm has claimed at least ten lives in that state, while his South Carolina counterpart Henry McMaster confirmed five deaths in his state as of Sunday.
Officials say Florence has caused what they call catastrophic flooding and left over 630,000 people without power.
Clair says many people are staying in their homes because of water pooling on the roads, adding they’ve been on high alert since Friday night.
“[We thought] the storm was just going to move over us, which is not great, but that’s tolerable. The fact that it’s sitting over us for so long, and sitting over the surrounding area–we live in the base of a watershed,” Clair points out.
“As the days have gone by, everyone is getting more and more anxious about the flooding.”
The North Carolina resident adds despite the downpour, few people have evacuated his area, and he says an order to leave hadn’t been issued yet by Sunday.