South Awash in Pincers of Dual Storms

Hurricane Lili and the remains of Tropical Storm Marco locked pincers on the South on Friday with a combination of powerful winds, heavy surf and drenching rains. At least 10 people have died in the storms.

Lili lurked off the shore of North Carolina, a weakling among hurricanes, spinning harmless 8-foot waves into the Outer Banks. Its winds were clocked at 75 m.p.h.--barely over the hurricane threshold of 74 m.p.h.

But the convergence of the hurricane and the tropical storm, plus the dying remnants of Tropical Storm Klaus, brought a third day of rain and dangerous flooding to parts of the coastal Southeast.

“We got so much rain, so fast. . . . We’ve never had anything like this,” said Pam Smith, director of the Richmond County Emergency Management Agency in Augusta, Ga., whose west side was swamped by floodwaters.

In South Carolina, where floods Thursday carried coffins out of a graveyard, state climatologist John Purvis said some places had the most rainfall in a century.

At the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Fla., forecasters said Lili appeared to be veering to the north sooner than expected, decreasing the threat of a direct hit on the mid-Atlantic Coast.

The hurricane’s center was about 290 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. It was moving northwest at nearly 15 m.p.h.

“It poses less threat to the East Coast now,” said Herb White of the National Weather Service in Raleigh, N.C. “Now it’s projected to parallel the coast a little farther out.”

Forecasters said gale-force winds could extend 75 miles inland along the route of the storm.

Tourists in North Carolina packed ferries to flee the Outer Banks, although the most noticeable signs of the storm were waves big enough to thrill surfers.

The real danger for the time being lay farther south, in Georgia, where four people drowned in rising floodwaters that ravaged the Augusta area. The floods were blamed on remnants of Tropical Storm Marco, which blew north Thursday out of the Gulf of Mexico.

Three people drowned Thursday in South Carolina, and one person drowned and two died in storm-related accidents in North Carolina.

In Augusta and surrounding Richmond County, officials closed all roads and declared a state of emergency, Smith said.

“All of our roads are flooded,” she said. “People are trapped in their homes. People are hollering out for help through their windows. Some are on the rooftops. There are people in their cars floating down the road.”

Emergency officials began evacuating families in the Augusta area Friday morning.