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As Hurricane Florence unleashes a deluge upon North Carolina, the city of New Bern has found itself inundated with floodwater, forcing hundreds of residents to call for help.
According
to Colleen Roberts, a spokeswoman for the city, 150 people were waiting
to be rescued Friday morning after about 200 were rescued overnight.
"WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU," a tweet from the city overnight said. "You may need to move up to the second story, or to your attic, but WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU."
According
to CNN meteorologists, as of early Friday morning, New Bern had already
seen more than 10 feet of storm surge and more than 7 inches of
rainfall.
New
Bern, home to approximately 30,000 people, sits about 37 miles
northeast of Jacksonville, North Carolina, on the banks of the Neuse
River. On Thursday, a CNN team in the area watched as the water crested
over the edge of the river and flooded Union Point Park in a matter of
hours.
New Bern resident Peggy Perry told CNN she and three relatives were trapped inside her home early Friday.
"In
a matter of seconds, my house was flooded up to the waist, and now it
is to the chest," she said. "We are stuck in the attic."
"We
have been up here for like three or four hours," Perry added, "and
there's no windows up here in the attic, so I put a light in the window
so they would know someone's here."
Roberts said rescuers were facing very challenging conditions, but assured residents help was on the way.
"We tell them to remain calm, not to panic, we will rescue them," Roberts said. "Again, we're having to be strategic about it."
Michael
Nelson floats in a makeshift boat after the Neuse River went over its
banks and flooded his street during Hurricane Florence Thursday in New
Bern.
The
storm surge had decreased to about 8 feet later Friday morning, Roberts
said, but that was mostly attributed to changes in the Neuse River's
tide.
"And when the tide comes
back up around noon, we will be inundated with additional storm surge,"
she said. "So we really have a new hustle this morning to get the rest
of those 150 people out."
According to Roberts, citizen volunteers with their own boats had offered to help the city coordinate rescues.
"We are not turning away that help," she said.
Among those volunteers was the Cajun Navy, a volunteer rescue organization formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Organizer Clyde Cain, told CNN the Cajun Navy was staged in New Bern and had received more than 500 calls for assistance.
Amber
Parker, a spokeswoman for Craven County, where New Bern is located,
told CNN early Friday morning the county had already logged more than
100 service calls from residents trapped on their roofs or in their
cars.
The county had been conducting water rescues since Thursday, Parker said.
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