I-40 in North Carolina Turns Into a River Due to Florence

Drone footage shows an Interstate 40 completely flooded in North Carolina, and officials said that it isn’t a river.

Hurricane Florence left North Carolina days ago, but the state is still slated to deal with flooding for weeks.

“This is not a river ... this is Interstate 40,” the North Carolina Department of Transportation said of the video, ABC7 reported.

The video was shot at Mile Marker 387 in Pender County along I-40.

The News & Observer reported that 1,100 roads in North Carolina are still closed as of Sept. 18.

Hurricane Florence left North Carolina days ago, but the state is still slated to deal with flooding for weeks. Fox News

“Roads are still dangerous,” Gov. Roy Cooper said, according to the paper. “And new road closings are still happening.”

Secretary of Transportation Jim Trogdon said that 255 primary roads are closed in the state, down from 356 on Sept. 17.

“Routes we have only support first responders,” Trogdon said. “They are not safe routes. They have risks of their own.”

The report said that I-40 from Exit 385 near Wallace to the New Hanover County line is closed.

The News & Observer wrote: “Southbound Interstate 95 is closed from I-40 in Johnston County south to Exit 65 at N.C. 82 near Godwin, while northbound is closed from Exit 65 to Exit 73 at Dunn. I-95 is also closed between exits 19 and 22 in Lumberton because of flooding. The recommended detour for southbound traffic is to take I-40 west all the way to Hickory, and get on U.S. 321 south until it meets I-85 in Gastonia. NCDOT has put up barriers on southbound I-95 at U.S. 64 in Rocky Mount to enforce the detour there; local traffic headed to Wilson or Johnston County must take 64 one way or the other and find alternative routes to their destinations.”

U.S. 301 in Cumberland and Robeson counties is also closed in several places.

U.S. 74 is closed from I-95 east to Columbus County and in other places.

U.S. 17 is also closed in several spots in Brunswick County.

An abandoned car's hazard lights continue to flash as it sits submerged in rising floodwaters during pre-dawn hours after Hurricane Florence struck in Wilmington, N.C., on Sept. 15, 2018. Jonathan Drake/Reuters

‘Nightmare’

“I know for many people this feels like a nightmare that just won’t end,” Cooper said of the flooding, according to The Associated Press.

He said that roughly 10,000 people remain in shelters and “countless more” are staying elsewhere. He said they should stay put for now, namely people from Wilmington, which was hit hard by the storm.

“I know it was hard to leave home, and it is even harder to wait and wonder whether you even have a home to go back to,” Cooper said.

WRAL-TV reported that state emergency management officials are monitoring inland creeks and rivers as they pose a threat to some 167 high-risk dams in the state. Seven of those dams are in places that had rainfall around 15 inches or more.

So far, more than 30 people died in storm-related incidents, including several children. Twenty-five of those deaths were in North Carolina.

And across North Carolina, officials reported 2,600 rescues from the storm as of Sept. 17, NBC News reported.

While Florence has moved on, the U.S. National Weather Service said that “major river flooding will persist in the Carolinas through the week.”