NEW BERN, N.C. (WCBS 880/CBS News/AP) -- After a weekend of destruction and devastation, the forecast for Florence remained unchanged Monday morning.
Rain continued to fall in most of the Carolinas, swelling rivers to record levels and submerging thousands of homes under water.
Residents of inland communities who thought they were safe from the storm have to find high ground because of expected flooding. When the sun finally comes out later this week, officials say it's going to take all the damage a long time to dry out.
The death toll related to Florence has now reached at least 32.
The county sheriff's office said a woman and her child were on their way to visit relatives when she drove past barricades on highway 218 in northern Union County. The woman later told authorities someone had pushed the barricades to the side, making her think it was alright to go through.
Also among the dead was a 3-month-old child was killed when a tree fell on a mobile home in North Carolina. Three people died in weather-related traffic accidents, officials said.
In Horry County, South Carolina, a man and woman died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The nation's top emergency official said other states were in the path this week.
"Not only are you going to see more impact across North Carolina, ... but we're also anticipating you are about to see a lot of damage going through West Virginia, all the way up to Ohio as the system exits out," Brock Long of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Sunday on Fox News.
As WCBS 880's Mike Smeltz reported, some people came to a temporary shelter on the University of North Carolina campus as they were pushed out of their homes by the storm.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said in total some 15,000 people are now in shelters due to Florence. They are being told to stay there until the flood waters recede, which will likely take several more days.
Ralph Wooten is from Maysville, North Carolina, a small town close to the coast. Wooten left Maysville on Wednesday of last week and hasn't been back since.
Several minutes into his conversation with Smeltz, Wooten slipped in some terrifying news.
"One thing I'm thinking about is my kids. I haven't heard from them. And I called them – I called my daughter. She didn't answer, but she left a message on the answering machine that they was all right, but that was Thursday. So I haven't heard from them since," he said.
Wooten's adult children are in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
"I hate to think the worst – the best I can say," he said. "I hope they're all right. Praying. It's in God's hands."
And as of Monday, it was still a waiting game as the rain continued to fall – with flooding likely to get worse before it gets better.
Spirits were surprisingly high at the shelter, though. Smeltz spoke to several people who say they feel fortunate they have a dry place to stay in.
A little community also formed at the shelter, bound together by the shared experience of being forced to leave their homes due to Florence.
While Chapel Hill, where the shelter was setup, was largely untouched by Florence, there were storms with heavy rain and a tornado warning was issued Monday.
"I'm covered in mud. I am absolutely covered in mud, and I'm bleeding a little bit, but I'm OK," the woman said.
The woman's daughter was grateful.
"She's great for even walking, because if I were you, I would have just turned around and walked back out," she said.
For some of the evacuees, cabin fever is setting in. One of them is Hannah Hamilton, whom you can't blame for being a bit stressed.
She was in the shelter with her 4-month-old daughter, named Brooklyn, and her 18-month-old son.
"It's been very hard, and I'm by myself. My boyfriend stayed home," Hamilton said. "My parents have helped me, though, and my family. They've been a really big help. I don't know what I would have done without them."
They first left their home in the coastal town of Atlantic, North Carolina for Georgia, and then shot back up north here to Durham – all the while juggling baby bottles and diapers and feedings.
"She's got colic, so it's been really hard.
Despite warnings from public officials that now is not the time to go back home, Hamilton and her family decided their going to give it a go and try to head back to the coast.
Back on the coast, Wilmington, the state's eighth-largest city with a population of 120,000, was completely cut off by floodwaters Snday evening.
Residents waited for hours outside stores and restaurants for basic necessities like water. Police guarded the door of one store, and only 10 people were allowed inside at a time.
County commission chairman Woody White said officials were planning for food and water to be flown into the coastal city.
"Our roads are flooded," he said. "There is no access to Wilmington."
Throwing a lifeline to the city, emergency crews delivered food and water to Wilmington on Monday as rescuers picked up more people who were left stranded.
The death toll from Florence rose to at least 32, and crews elsewhere used helicopters and boats to rescue people trapped by still-rising rivers.
"Thank you," a frazzled, shirtless Willie Schubert mouthed to members of a Coast Guard helicopter crew who plucked him and his dog Lucky from atop a house encircled by water in Pollocksville. It was not clear how long he had been stranded.
By midday Monday, authorities reopened a single unidentified road into the town, which stands on a peninsula. But it wasn't clear if that the route would remain open as the Cape Fear River kept swelling. And officials did not say when other roads might be clear.
In some places, the rain finally stopped, and the sun peeked through, but Gov. Cooper warned that dangerously high water would persist for days. He urged residents who were evacuated from the hardest-hit areas to stay away because of closed roads and catastrophic flooding that submerged entire communities.
"There's too much going on," he told a news conference.
Three TV stations in Wilmington were also set to go dark Monday night because there was no gas to keep their generators running.
Jack McHale of Wilmington told Smeltz that he was under pressure to stay, but ultimately left for Durham – albeit a day after everyone else.
"I had a generator and 40 gallons of gas, and you know, I was set; food, three bottles of propane for the grills, but I've got a wife and young child and her parents and her sister. They all kind of convinced me I should leave," he said. "I followed up a day later."
Downgraded to a tropical depression, Florence was still massive Monday. Radar showed parts of the sprawling storm over six states, with North and South Carolina in the bull's-eye.
But relief efforts are coming in from many directions.
Chicago Bulls legend and now Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan, who grew up in Wilmington, announced over the weekend that he, the Hornets, and the NBA family are working with community groups to provide relief for those affected by Florence.
"It's truly devastating for me to see the damage that Hurricane Florence is doing to my beloved home state of North Carolina and to the surrounding areas," Jordan said in a news release. "The recovery effort will be massive, and it will take a long time to repair the damage and for families to get back on their feet. Together with the NBA, we have launched a platform to aid those most impacted. Please join me, the Hornets organization and the NBA and donate to one of the local organizations assisting in the relief and recovery efforts. To all those affected, stay safe and know that we're here to help."
Volunteers from all over the country, including New York and New Jersey, have also headed to the area to assist with cleanup.
As WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported, among the groups headed out was the DART Team – short for Disaster Assistance Response Team – is composed of current and retired FDNY members. They were at American Red Cross Greater New York headquarters Monday, getting ready to deploy to North Carolina.
"We basically load the trucks up at a warehouse, and then routes are made by, you know the planning and bulk distribution teams," said team member Doug Bainton.
A group of medical volunteers from Long Island also left early Saturday for the area, and told WCBS 880's Mike Sugerman they would be removing fallen tree branches and other debris until flood waters receded.
Survivors of Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey also spent most of the day Saturday collecting supplies to send down to the areas destroyed by Florence.
Meanwhile, the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington had began to open its doors to stray dogs that had been resued from flooding in North Carolina and Virginia.
In North Carolina, fears of what could be the worst flooding in the state's history led officials to order tens of thousands to evacuate, though it wasn't clear how many had fled or even could.
President Donald Trump said federal emergency workers, first responders and law enforcement officials were "working really hard." As the storm "begins to finally recede, they will kick into an even higher gear. Very Professional!" he declared in a tweet.
"It hit the same areas that Matthew hit two years ago, and the water from North Carolina eventually makes its way to South Carolina," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said on CBS's "Face The Nation."
On U.S. Route 401 nearby, rain rose in ditches and around unharvested tobacco crops along the road. Ponds had begun to overflow, and creeks passing under the highway churned with muddy, brown water. Farther along the Cape Fear River, grass and trees lining the banks were partly submerged.
"The people who were flooded out two years ago are going to get flooded out again, and I don't know how these communities make it, quite frankly," Graham said.
The industrial-scale farms contain vast pits of animal feces and urine that can pose a significant pollution threat if they are breached or inundated by floodwaters. In past hurricanes, flooding at dozens of farms also left hundreds of thousands of dead hogs, chickens and other decomposing livestock bobbing in floodwaters.
Some stream gauges used to monitor river levels failed when they became submerged, but others showed water levels rising steadily, with forecasts calling for rivers to at or near record levels. The Defense Department said about 13,500 military personnel were assigned to help relief efforts.
Authorities ordered the immediate evacuation of up to 7,500 people living within a mile (1.6 kilometers) of a stretch of the Cape Fear River and the Little River, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the North Carolina coast. The evacuation zone included part of the city of Fayetteville, population 200,000.
Near the flooded-out town of New Bern , where about 455 people had to be rescued from the swirling flood waters, water completely surrounded churches, businesses and homes. In the neighboring town of Trenton, downtown streets were turned to creeks full of brown water.
The rain was unrelenting in Cheraw, a town of about 6,000 people in northeastern South Carolina. Streets were flooded and Police Chief Keith Thomas warned people not to drive, but the local food and gas store had customers.
"As you can tell, they're not listening to me," he said.
(© 2018 WCBS 880. CBS News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
