It ripped shingles off rooftops, siding off homes, and toppled massive trees. Clean-up continues as people assess how their homes, churches and businesses were damaged.
Police officers and firefighters in eastern North Carolina cruised low-lying areas and shouted a simple message from bullhorns: Get out before the floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew arrive.
Volunteer firefighters drove their military-surplus truck with 4-foot tires into dark flood waters, after torrents from Hurricane Matthew sent the Lumber River overflowing its banks on North Carolina's coastal plain.
The remnants of Hurricane Matthew triggered severe flooding across North Carolina as the storm made its exit to the sea Sunday, and hundreds of people had to be rescued from their homes and cars. The death toll in the U.S. climbed to at least 14, half of them in North Carolina.