WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — The death toll from Hurricane Florence climbed to at least 37, including two women who drowned when a sheriff's van taking them to a mental health facility was swept away by floodwaters, and North Carolina's governor pleaded with thousands of evacuees not to return home just yet.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, arrived in storm-ravaged North Carolina on Wednesday and helped volunteers at a church in the hard-hit coastal town of New Bern.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on Tropical Depression Florence (all times local):

8:45 p.m.

More North Carolina counties have qualified for federal disaster aid for their homeowners, renters and businesses reeling from Hurricane Florence damage.

Devastating flooding in North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence has raised concerns about whether dams across the state, some of them already in poor condition, will be able to hold up under the strain.

State officials have been monitoring dam safety in cooperation with local authorities and say there has been at least one dam breach so far, with no homes affected. But there have been several other locations of concern and false alarms about dam failures that have caused panic.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Throwing a lifeline to a city surrounded by floodwaters, emergency crews delivered food and water to Wilmington on Monday as rescuers picked up more people stranded by Hurricane Florence and the storm's remnants took aim at the densely populated Northeast.

The death toll from Florence rose to at least 32, and crews elsewhere used helicopters and boats to rescue people trapped by still-rising rivers.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on Tropical Depression Florence (all times local):

7:05 p.m.

The death toll from Hurricane Florence and its remnants has risen to 17 as officials say a 3-month-old died in North Carolina when a tree landed on a mobile home.

Gaston County manager Earl Mathers said in an email to commissioners the tree fell on a mobile home Sunday in Dallas, about 240 miles (386 kilometers) west of where Hurricane Florence made landfall Friday in Wrightsville Beach.

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of Americans with flood insurance is on the rise, yet Hurricane Florence is likely to make it painfully clear that too many homeowners in the Carolinas and other vulnerable regions remain unprotected.

An analysis of federal flood insurance records by The Associated Press found there were roughly 5.1 million active flood insurance policies in the U.S. as of July 31, up from 4.94 million a year earlier.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Damage from Hurricane Florence left a North Carolina city popular with tourists cut off Sunday from road access, leaving authorities planning how to get food and water there by air and water.

Officials from New Hanover County and Wilmington said Sunday that additional rainfall Saturday night caused more problems for the area. State Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon said one of his top priorities was determining how to restore ground access to the area.

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of Americans with flood insurance is on the rise, yet Hurricane Florence is likely to make it painfully clear that too many homeowners in the Carolinas and other vulnerable regions remain unprotected.

Florence came ashore in the Carolinas Friday and its storm surges, flash floods and winds scattered destruction widely.

Federal data show there were roughly 5.1 million active flood insurance policies in the U.S. as of July 31, up from 4.94 million a year earlier.

MIAMI (AP) — Before and after a hurricane, Ace is the place. And Home Depot and Lowe's. And many other hardware and building supply outlets.

Not surprisingly, these companies plan for storms such as Hurricane Florence all year. Much like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, supplies are pre-positioned and trucks loaded and ready to go with everything from batteries to gas cans to tarps to chainsaws.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nature expresses its fury in sundry ways. Two deadly storms — Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut — roared ashore on the same day, half a world apart, but the way they spread devastation was as different as water and wind.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nature expresses its fury in sundry ways. Two deadly storms — Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut — roared ashore on the same day, half a world apart, but the way they spread devastation was as different as water and wind.

Many residents who evacuated North Carolina's Outer Banks ahead of Hurricane Florence made their way Saturday back onto the barrier islands, a popular tourist destination spared from the worst of the storm's wrath.

While other parts of the state were suffering catastrophic flooding from a storm that caused at least 11 deaths, county officials and business owners on the low-lying islands reported relatively minimal damage, and there were no immediate reports of injuries or fatalities.

The Latest on how Hurricane Florence has impacted the college football weekend: (all times local):

1:05 p.m.

Tennessee distributed 1,067 free tickets to its game with UTEP to Hurricane Florence evacuees from North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Volunteers athletic director Phillip Fulmer had announced Wednesday that evacuees would get free tickets as long as they provided IDs showing they're from counties under evacuation orders. Ticket distribution started at 8:30 a.m. for the noon game.

LUMBERTON, N.C. (AP) — She takes a break from hauling rugs and family heirlooms into the attic to look out the front door and watch it rain and rain and rain some more.

Nichole Worley studies the house across the street, abandoned and boarded up, and the creek just behind it that made it that way. It jumped its banks during Hurricane Matthew two years ago, which drowned her neighborhood, one of the poorest communities in one of the poorest counties in North Carolina.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A warmer world makes for nastier hurricanes. Scientists say they are wetter, possess more energy and intensify faster.

Their storm surges are more destructive because climate change has already made the seas rise. And lately, the storms seem to be stalling more often and thus dumping more rain.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on Florence (all times local):

11 p.m. Tropical Storm Florence is crawling slowly across South Carolina as life-threatening storm surges and strong winds are expected to continue overnight, amid a rising inland flood threat.

Millions of people in the path of Florence are hunkering down Friday as the monster storm pummels North and South Carolina, bringing catastrophic inundations and forceful, destructive winds. Here are snapshots of people struggling to cope with the slow-grinding storm.

MIAMI (AP) — It's about the water, not the wind, with Florence making an extended stay along the North Carolina coast. Forecasters say "it cannot be emphasized enough that the most serious hazard posed by the slow-moving storm is extremely heavy rainfall, which will cause disastrous flooding that will be spreading inland." Officials also have confirmed the hurricane's first known fatalities.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Blowing ashore with howling 90 mph (155 kph) winds, Florence splintered buildings, trapped hundreds of people and swamped entire communities along the Carolina coast Friday in what could be just the opening act in a watery, two-part, slow-motion disaster. At least four people were killed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A warmer world makes for nastier hurricanes. Scientists say they are wetter, possess more energy and intensify faster.

Their storm surges are more destructive because climate change has already made the seas rise. And lately, the storms seem to be stalling more often and thus dumping more rain.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Florence is being blamed for taking several lives in North Carolina, including that of a woman and infant child who were killed when a massive tree crashed through their modest brick home early Friday. A man electrocuted while plugging in a generator during a heavy rain and another knocked down by wind were among the other casualties reported from the monster storm lashing the Southeast.

As Hurricane Florence spins inland, environmental regulators are monitoring more than three dozen toxic waste sites in the storm's path, as well as scores of low-lying water- and sewage-treatment plants at risk of flooding.

The Environmental Protection Agency has identified 41 Superfund sites in threatened parts of the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland and Georgia, including polluted industrial sites, chemical plants, coastal shipyards and military bases.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — A mother and baby killed when a tree smashed into their house are among four deaths caused by Hurricane Florence.

The monster storm felled trees all around Wilmington, causing many more close calls and damaging homes and cars.

Authorities say the woman and her 8-month-old child died when the tree smashed into their one-story house on a residential street east of downtown Wilmington around 7 a.m. The father was hospitalized with injuries.

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Clemson is moving forward with plans to host its scheduled football game on Saturday while Hurricane Florence wreaks havoc on the Carolinas' coastline with officials bracing for historic flooding and record-setting rainfall that has forced people to evacuate their homes to escape the wrath of the storm.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Jennifer Liebelt and her family were rescued by boat from their home in Union Beach, New Jersey, as Superstorm Sandy destroyed it in 2012. Rather than rebuild, they moved to Wilmington, North Carolina — where Hurricane Florence threatened their new home this week.

This time, there was no question of riding out the storm; she, two brothers, two sisters, her mother, a cousin and a cat piled into cars and headed north, hoping to squeeze in with relatives in New Jersey.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Florence's rain total will likely be staggeringly huge.