More than 100 people and 33 animals were rescued late Thursday and early Friday from a Bladen County community after a levee breached on the Cape Fear River, officials said.
The North Carolina National Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard flew eight CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to Kelly, which is about 27 miles northwest of Wilmington, after getting notice of the breach shortly after 8 p.m., National Guard Brig. Gen. Todd Hunt said during a Friday news conference.
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Some of the helicopters were able to land and evacuate people, while other Kelly residents were hoisted into the hovering aircraft, Hunt said.
The crews, some of which were from Minnesota and Maryland, had to use night-vision goggles during the operation, which ended at 2 a.m.
The evacuees were flown to Kinston, where they spent the night in shelters, Hunt said. Bladen County Commissioner Charles Ray Peterson said Friday that buses were heading to Kinston to pick the evacuees up and bring them back to Bladen County, where many will likely go into shelters established there.
The Kelly residents are among more than 5,000 people rescued in North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Florence, Gov. Roy Cooper said, adding that that is double the number of rescues that occurred after Hurricane Matthew two years ago.
Cooper and other officials again implored people not to visit areas east of U.S. Highway 1 and south of U.S. Highway 70 because flooding means road conditions are continually changing. About 600 roads remain closed in North Carolina, including Interstates 40 and 95, 40 U.S. highways and 89 state highways, officials said.
"The damage to our state is devastating and is still occurring," Cooper said. "We don't yet know the full extent of the damage, and we won't know until the waters recede."