GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on Hurricane Matthew (all times local):
5 p.m.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory says two more people have died in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, raising the U.S. death toll to 38.
McCrory said Thursday that 22 people in North Carolina had died. The governor said one victim drowned when the car they were in went around a barricade and encountered a washed-out road. A second victim died when he walked into a hole from an uprooted tree and couldn’t get out.
Virginia also reported its second storm-related death Thursday.
North Carolina is still seeing flooding several days after Matthew dumped more than a foot of rain. McCrory said the historic town of Princeville was underwater after a nearby river spilled over. McCrory says the town of about 2,000 people will need to rebuild.
It’s one of the country’s first towns created by freed slaves in 1865. It was devastated in 1999 after Hurricane Floyd’s torrential rains.
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2 p.m.
Virginia officials say the death of a Suffolk man found days after he disappeared during Hurricane Matthew is the second storm-related death in the state.
Virginia Department of Emergency Management spokesman Gabe Lupo confirmed the death Thursday. The U.S. death count is now at 36.
Suffolk officials say 53-year-old Derek Cason’s body was found Wednesday in a marshy inlet area along the Nansemond River. He was last seen Sunday morning after being dropped near the McDonald’s where he worked. Investigators believe Cason was swept away in heavy tidal flooding caused by the hurricane.
Cason’s sister, Delicia Barber, said her brother was a dedicated man who was intent on making it to his job in spite of the storm.
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10:50 a.m.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it’s working to help animals stranded or left homeless by floodwaters after Hurricane Matthew.
The society said in a news release Thursday that workers are helping rescue stranded animals as well as sheltering animals whose homes have been destroyed.
The society said it has helped nearly 1,000 animals in the Carolinas and Georgia since Hurricane Matthew struck last weekend.
Tim Rickey with the ASPCA says officials in the Lumberton area think hundreds of animals may be affected by the flooding.
Floodwaters are still rising in parts of eastern North Carolina.
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9:50 a.m.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory says 55,000 customers still have no electricity, but that’s down from nearly 900,000 at the height of Hurricane Matthew.
McCrory said Thursday that no new deaths have been reported. State officials say 20 people have died in the storm, almost all of them in vehicle-related deaths.
McCrory says three more counties have been approved for federal help. Nearly three dozen counties are now approved for aid to local government and 17 counties have been approved for help to individuals who suffered losses.
The governor says the biggest problems continue to be in Robeson County, in the southeastern part of the state.
But he warned flooding is still possible across much of the eastern North Carolina.
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7 a.m.
North Carolina officials are reopening a long section of the main road on the Outer Banks after damage from Hurricane Matthew.
Transportation officials said in a statement that crews have cleared debris and the water has receded enough to reopen the section of N.C. 12 on Thursday that leads south toward Cape Hatteras.
Dare County is still restricting access to Frisco and Hatteras.
Matthew left much of the road under water because of tidal flooding and heavy rains.
Transportation crews began clearing debris and sand Monday but the water had been slow to recede.
Officials urge people to drive slowly and be careful where there is still water on the road.
Engineers checked the bridge and found no evidence that sand had washed away from the bridge piers.
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3 a.m.
Anita Van Beveren has been coming back day after day, as often as once an hour, to watch the brown floodwater’s progress toward the rental home she shares with her two teenage children in Greenville, North Carolina.
While she got many belongings out, they couldn’t move everything - one of their bicycles is chained to a back deck surrounded by water. She says she’s been crying, but she feels lucky to be staying with friends.
Her leafy neighborhood is one of many around North Carolina to suffer flooding after Hurricane Matthew.
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