‘I Will Never Ever Ever Stay’ Again, Woman Stranded By Florence Tells 'Today'

A Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, woman stranded in her home a day after Hurricane Florence made landfall shared her regret with the “Today” show Saturday.

“I will never ever ever stay through this” again, said Jeanette Rivera, calling from the third floor of a home “surrounded by the ocean.”

The resident of Sneads Ferry, a coastal town about 30 miles from where Florence first hit land, explained why she and her husband decided to stick it out rather than evacuate.

“We thought it was going to be like [Hurricane] Matthew,” Rivera said, referring to the 2016 storm that caused flooding in eastern North Carolina. “We lost a little bit of our dock [inaudible] but it wasn’t that bad.”

Her voice shook as she described “hearing the noise [of the storm], not knowing if your house is going to collapse into the water.”

Though Florence has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, it’s still very dangerous. More heavy rains and winds are expected in the Carolinas and the Eastern U.S.

Reports Saturday morning said at least five people had died and at least a million homes and businesses had lost power.