An area of 60,000 people, on the Atlantic coast between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, is one of several areas in the Carolinas waiting anxiously for rivers to crest, a week after Florence dumped three feet of rain on the region.

Flooding could begin early next week, officials said during a community meeting on Thursday.

The city of Georgetown on Friday was handing out 15,000 sandbags as they develop plans to evacuate residents.

"Please heed the warnings," Sheriff Lane Cribb said. "Protecting lives and property will be our goal."

Thirty-one deaths have been attributed to the storm in North Carolina, eight in South Carolina and one in Virginia.

More than three dozen flood gauges in North and South Carolina showed flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

About 4,700 people across North Carolina have been rescued by boat or helicopter since the storm made landfall, twice as many as in Hurricane Matthew two years ago, while about 10,000 remain in shelters.

The coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina, remained cut off by floodwaters on Thursday, and more than 200 state roads were closed or blocked.

More than 54,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Carolinas on Friday afternoon.

The flooding from Florence has also caused 21 hog "lagoons," which store manure from pig farms, to overflow in North Carolina, possibly contaminating standing water, according to the state's Department of Environmental Quality.

Several sewer systems in the region also have released untreated or partly treated sewage and storm water into waterways over the last week, local media reported.

Australian Associated Press