Felton and Geraldine Eubanks did not have flood insurance. Their home of 53 years in rural Trenton, N.C., is in a low-risk area for flooding, according to state records. Prior to Hurricane Florence, they hadn’t needed flood insurance. 

“We had never been flooded. Never,” Geraldine said. When the last two big hurricanes hit the state (Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and Matthew in 2016), nearby neighbors and family members whose homes weren’t as elevated found refuge in the Eubankses’ home.

Nearly 100,000 households lost power Sunday after powerful storms swept across the South over the weekend, spawning tornadoes and flooding that killed at least eight people. The storm brought widespread damage to Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas and is expected to move on to the northeastern United States. One of the confirmed tornadoes ripped through the central Texas town of Franklin.

At 2 a.m. on a Friday—hours after Cyclone Idai struck—Robert Koehn and his wife, Karis, bailed water by the bucketful from their home in Lamego, 51 miles inland from the central port city of Beira in Mozambique. 

The American missionary couple with the Africa Inland Mission lived in the village for more than 18 years. They witnessed past storms and had shuttered their windows in advance. 

“We really had no idea how strong it was going to be.” 

Media reporting on the recent devastating flooding—in places as distant as Mozambique and as close as the Missouri River Valley—brought a new reminder: The doctrine of creation matters. 

Authorities in South Dakota on Monday found the bodies of two workers in a garbage truck that was swept away in the flooded James River, the South Dakota Highway Patrol said. The 61-year-old driver and 46-year-old passenger, whose names were not released, were last seen Thursday leaving a landfill in Mitchell, S.D. Crews spotted a damaged guardrail Saturday on a highway along the river and later found the truck. Flooding in the Midwest has caused at least three deaths, and two men remain missing in Nebraska.

On March 18, four days after Cyclone Idai raged through Mozambique, Rick Emenaker flew over the country’s worst-hit community, the central port city of Beira.

“We saw people on rooftops by the hundreds, and others clinging to trees,” said Emenaker, a disaster response manager with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). “The floodwaters had completely submerged homes.”

Satellite images released by the European Space Agency showed inland floodwaters measuring 80 miles by 15 miles, drowning homes and villages that once dotted the region.

U.S. weather officials on Thursday predicted unprecedented flooding this spring throughout the country as the Midwest responds to already record water levels. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson declared a state of emergency on Thursday. “The rising floodwaters are affecting more Missouri communities and farms, closing more roads and threatening levees, water treatment plants, and other critical infrastructure,” Parson said in a statement. The Missouri River swelled from this month’s heavy rains and snowmelt and is expected to crest Friday in St.