http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/us/hurricane-matthew.html 2016-10-11 06:38:45 Hurricane Matthew’s Toll Rises; Flooding Strands 1,500 in North Carolina North Carolina’s governor said a levee breach in Lumberton had forced residents onto rooftops, with helicopters and boats sent to rescue them. === ■ Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina said Monday that an ■ ■ The toll in Haiti, which took a direct hit, has been hard to measure. As many as 1,000 people have Governor McCrory, addressing reporters in Raleigh on Monday, said a levee breach before dawn had endangered about 1,500 residents in Lumberton. “Floodwaters are rising very quickly,” said Mr. McCrory, who added that water was knee-deep in many places. “We do have people on the roofs as we speak, and we have a lot of helicopters and boats that have been deployed that are, at this point in time, rescuing them.” Mr. McCrory also reported 10 fatalities in North Carolina, raising Hurricane Matthew’s death toll in the United States to at least 21. At least 1,400 people have been rescued since Hurricane Matthew struck the state. — ALAN BLINDER A federal judge on Monday extended Florida’s voter registration deadline by one day, delivering a quick legal victory to Democrats who argued that the storm had upended plans to draw more people into the political process in one of the nation’s most closely contested states. In a harshly worded ruling, Judge Mark E. Walker of the Federal District Court in Tallahassee said residents would be allowed to join the voter rolls until 5 p.m. Wednesday. “This case pits the fundamental right to vote against administrative convenience,” Judge Walker wrote. “Of course, the State of Florida has the ability to set its own deadlines and has an interest in maintaining those deadlines. But it would be nonsensical to prioritize those deadlines over the right to vote, especially given the circumstances here.” Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican and one of the named defendants in the lawsuit, has resisted calls from Democrats that he extend the voter registration period, which was scheduled to end on Tuesday. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. — Several rivers in eastern North Carolina broke out of their banks on Monday, after weekend rainfalls of up to 16 inches in places, the National Weather Service reported. Some rivers reached record heights, while on others, waters are expected to keep rising for days in some areas, as the floods move downstream. The Cape Fear River south of Fayetteville crested Monday at more than 26 feet above flood stage; farther downstream, near Chinquapin, the same river was forecast to rise into Wednesday. To the northeast, the Neuse River reached more than 8 feet above flood stage near Goldsboro on Monday, and was projected to rise another 2 feet, peaking on Tuesday near its record. Downstream, near Kinston, the Neuse rose more than 7 feet above flood stage, and was expected to climb 5 feet more, not cresting until Saturday. The Lumber River at Lumberton rose 4 feet higher than it had ever been measured before. The Little River at Manchester broke its previous record by 3 feet. Several South Carolina rivers also reached moderate or major flood stage, the Weather Service reported, but conditions there were not as severe. — Storm surge and battering waves can devastate coastal beaches and the dunes behind them. So when Hurricane Matthew raked the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, it carved away some beaches — though it left others relatively untouched. Brevard County, Fla., home to Cocoa Beach, the Kennedy Space Center and other famous tourist attractions, lost about one million cubic yards of sand from the county’s 72 miles of beaches, said Virginia Barker, the county’s natural resources management director. While the number is large, the damage was less than that caused by Farther north, many shorelines were reshaped by the storm; after a helicopter tour, Gov. Rick Scott Environmental officials in states farther north said their coastal evaluations were still underway. Mary-Kathryn Craft, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, said that early reports indicated “erosion is rather extensive throughout the coast,” and that many state beaches “were already experiencing significant sand deficits and chronic erosion.” The state had been working on replenishment projects. Since the storm, the agency has also collaborated with local governments and citizens to post reports through its — JOHN SCHWARTZ “Returning residents are encouraged to exercise patience and expect lengthy travel times, blocked roadways and detours back to evacuated areas and are asked not to drive around barricades or use emergency lanes that are needed for first responders,” the governor’s office said in a statement. The authorities in South Carolina have attributed three deaths to the storm, including two in Florence County, northwest of Myrtle Beach. — JESS BIDGOOD, in Charleston The American Red Cross has published Once cleanup begins, In Haiti, the Bahamas and Florida, the storm left behind stories of disaster and of disaster narrowly averted. On Monday, Matthew broke up and headed northeast into the North Atlantic as a diffuse low-pressure system, passing the northeastern United States, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. After dropping some rain on the Northeast, it pushed out to sea with gale-force winds and heavy seas, but continued to weaken.