Colorado Task Force One, a team of 45 first responders based out of Lakewood, spent Sunday and Monday boating through the flooded neighborhoods of Lumberton, N.C., answering 911 calls and checking on those sheltered in place during Hurricane Florence.
The damage in areas like Lumberton has been devastating. Entire streets completely underwater. An old schoolhouse with water nearly halfway up its front door. Basements flooded with feet of water. Folding tables, dishwashers and trash cans bobbing up toward ceilings.
The Lumber River in town crested at a record high of 22.18 feet Monday morning, overflowing its banks, as rescue teams attempted to get people in flooded low-lying areas to higher ground.
The Colorado task force, based out of a college gym in Pembroke, N.C., since last week, helped rescue five evacuees and four Army National Guard members Sunday after a military vehicle lost control on a flooded road.
The National Weather Service warns that the flooding could last weeks, while North Carolina officials say that this could mark the worst flooding in the state’s history.
Denver Post photographer RJ Sangosti is embedded with the Colorado-based task force and is chronicling their search-and-rescue efforts in the storm’s aftermath. Follow along with RJ on Twitter at and Instagram at
