Relentless rain on Saturday left large areas of the US southeast under water and forecasters said that more heavy downpours could trigger historic flooding in the crucial next 24 hours.
The states of North and South Carolina have been particularly hard hit, but the driving rain in recent days has spared almost none of the US east coast and forecasters say the worst is not over quite yet.
News reports blamed the wild weather on four deaths in the US since Thursday, all in the Carolinas.
It is a separate weather system from Hurricane Joaquin, a powerful category 4 storm that battered the Bahamas, destroying homes, and was threatening to do much the same to Bermuda.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said there was the possibility of record-setting rainfall over the weekend and US President Barack Obama on Saturday issued an emergency declaration for the state, ordering federal aid for areas affected by flooding.
Some streets were submerged in the historic old town of Charleston, South Carolina, a reporter said.
Most of the restaurants and bars were closed because of the rising water.
“We are used to flooding in the area, but this is extraordinary,” Charleston Police Department Sergeant Edwin Graceley said.
John and Merroli Haas, tourists from Kansas, took shelter from the heavy rain under the old market hall.
“We were going to go to Savannah [Georgia] today, but we decided not to. We didn’t want to take the chance,” Merroli said.
Power was out in parts of South Carolina and Haley reiterated her call for drivers to keep off the roads over the weekend for their own safety.
The US National Weather Service warned of “potentially historic and life-threatening flooding” across the southeast.
“The threat for widespread catastrophic flooding will continue across parts of the southeast through the remainder of the weekend, as tropical moisture feeding into an area of low pressure produces moderate to heavy rainfall across the region,” it said. “Gusty winds are also possible, which could lead to downed power lines.”
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