RALEIGH, N.C. -- Searchers found two more bodies inside vehicles that were submerged in floodwaters in North Carolina from Hurricane Matthew, increasing the toll in the state to 26 dead, Gov. Pat McCrory said Saturday.
McCrory talked a lot about recovery at his Saturday news conference -- a week after the hurricane dumped more than a foot of rain 100 miles inland, causing flooding in the eastern part of the state.
Towns such as Princeville, Lumberton and Fair Bluff remain under water, and not all rivers have crested.
Early this week, the governor plans to release a detailed plan on how North Carolina will rebuild, including how to pay for the effort. But he said serious problems remain.
[ MATTHEW’S IMPACT: Map of flooding so far]
"There are still many, many difficult days ahead for North Carolina," McCrory said.
The latest victims from the flooding were found in Cumberland and Wayne counties after floodwaters receded from last weekend's rains. Almost all the deaths in North Carolina have been from people driving or walking into floodwaters and being swept away.
Flooding triggered by the hurricane has killed at least 43 people in the United States and more than 500 people in Haiti.
McCrory said Friday was the first day since the rains began that crews have not had to rescue anyone from the water.
Interstate 95 remains closed in both directions around Lumberton, despite crews working around the clock to fix bridges and pavement, and clear debris.
Crews can't give an estimate on when the East Coast's main north-south highway will reopen at that spot.
"We have to see the inspections, we have to finish the engineering, we have to finish the construction," McCrory said.
Judges in Georgia and North Carolina on Friday ordered state election officials to extend voter-registration deadlines in some counties due to disruptions caused by Hurricane Matthew, which forced thousands of people to evacuate and temporarily closed some government offices.
The judges' rulings came after Georgia's governor and North Carolina's state board of elections' executive director declined to extend the deadlines.
In North Carolina, where the traditional deadline to register was Friday, a state judge ordered election officials to extend it until Wednesday in 36 eastern counties affected by flooding from the hurricane.
In Georgia, U.S. District Judge William Moore Jr. ruled that residents of Chatham County, which includes Savannah, must be allowed to register through Tuesday-- a week after the original deadline passed.
Powerful winds, heavy rain and flooding from Matthew led to downed trees, building damage and power failures around Chatham County, which has 278,000 residents.
The two states join Florida and South Carolina in extending their deadlines.
After Florida Gov. Rick Scott refused to extend his state's Oct. 11 deadline, a federal judge first extended it by a day and then later to Tuesday.
South Carolina extended its original Oct. 7 deadline, and will now accept registration forms postmarked no later than Tuesday.
In North Carolina, a presidential battleground state, the state Democratic Party sued the state board's executive director earlier Friday.
Executive Director Kim Strach had allowed some leeway by agreeing to accept mailed applications through Wednesday, but the Democrats said that wasn't enough.
In a hastily arranged hearing, Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens acknowledged that local election officials could face more administrative obstacles in accepting traditional applications for three more business days next week as they prepare for early in-person voting.
But Stephens said those obstacles were outweighed by the "significant right of the constitution to ensure that every voter that wants to vote is not precluded from doing so as a result of a natural disaster."
In Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal had ordered the state's six coastal counties to evacuate for the hurricane on Oct. 6.
The Chatham County elections board and other county offices remained closed through last Tuesday, the original registration deadline.
Because of fallen trees and widespread power failures, post offices that also register voters didn't reopen until last Tuesday.
Many residents weren't able to register online, either, because of the evacuation or because of technological glitches, said William Custer, an attorney for the civil-rights group that filed a lawsuit asking for the extension.
Custer asked the judge to decide whether to grant an extension for the entire state. Moore chose to limit the extra registration days to Chatham County.
Attorneys said election offices in Georgia's other five coastal counties, which also evacuated, managed to reopen before the registration deadline.
Information for this article was contributed by Russ Bynum, Gary D. Robertson and Kate Brumback of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/16/2016