Hurricane Florence: Three dead as storm mauls Carolinas - BBC News
At least three people are dead as crews work to rescue dozens of people trapped by storm surge.
The US government has a National Flood Insurance Programme (NFIP) that helps pay for flood coverage in high-risk zones across the country - but this programme is billions of dollars in debt.

Florence is expected to exacerbate the situation.

The programme has been up for renewal several times - Congress' next deadline to reauthorise the NFIP is 30 November of this year.

While some wind damage may be covered by regular homeowners' insurance, flooding is a different story.

In the US, flood protection policies from private providers are often very expensive, largely because it is difficult to assess a home's flood risk.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, 14% of Americans living in the southern states had flood insurance as of 2016 .