Michael leaves Carolinas with half-million powerless, schools closed, flooding Friday

The impact of Tropical Storm Michael continues in North Carolina, with one death, 490,000 people without power Friday morning, ongoing flooding and more than a dozen school districts closed.

Power outages included more than 180,000 in the Greensboro area and 56,000 in the Charlotte metro area, reported Duke Energy.

The number was expected to rise as the storm exited the state late Thursday, Charlotte-based Duke said in a tweet.

Michael weakened to a post-tropical cyclone late Thursday and is expected to exit Virginia out into the Atlantic Ocean Friday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The storm inflicted significant damage in the Carolinas, including flash flooding, downed trees on roads, and people who needed to be rescued from flood waters.

One North Carolina death is among at least deaths tied so far to the storm. Gov. Roy Cooper said in a press conference that an Iredell County man was killed when a tree fell on a car, the Charlotte Observer reported.

The other deaths included four in Florida and an 11-year-old girl in Georgia who died when a “carport hit her home in Seminole County,” said The Weather Channel.

Four to five inches of rain was predicted with the storm in North Carolina and rainfall totals recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey Thursday showed some sites exceeded that by an inch or more.

The Meteorological Station at Glade Creek reported more than 10 inches of rain Thursday, while Pleasant Gardens reported 6.5 inches of rain, and a site near Greensboro saw 6.38 inches.

Spots in Morganton and Mocksville saw more than 5 inches of rain, says the USGS.

Flash flooding in Henderson County resulted in “multiple water rescues,” according to a Henderson County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post.

TV station WLOS reported more than 40 roads had to be closed in the county due to flooding and 18 people had to be rescued, including one involving an SUV whose driver “found her vehicle floating” when she tried driving through flood waters.

More than a dozen school districts announced they would either be closed Friday or would have two and three hour delays, reported WTVD.

Among the closures were some of the state’s largest school districts, including the Wake and Mecklenburg county districts and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

Mark Price: 704-358-5245, @markprice_obs