A Winnipeg man who has called North Carolina home for the past 18 years is riding out Hurricane Florence at his neighbour's house as the category 1 storm continues to batter the coast.  

Paley said the pond behind his home has risen about 5 or 6 feet since it started raining mid-afternoon Thursday.

Darrin Paley and his family live in New Bern, about 40 miles from the coast. The community has been hit with strong winds and rain to the point where Darrin and his family had to leave their home earlier today.

"We're seeing wind gusts of eighty to a hundred miles an hour, to which point we heard our shingles being ripped off our house. It sounded like a marching band on the top of our house," he said. "And then all of a sudden we started seeing water leaking through our window sills, and then we started seeing our ceilings leaking and then it just progressively got worse...we had to make a decision to get out." 

Paley said he had been trying to stay on top of the leaks but it just got to the point where he couldn't keep up any more. "The house is just being let go." 

According to Paley it's been raining non-stop since mid-afternoon Thursday and he is confident the area had already seen 15 inches of rain by noon on Friday. At that time, he said roads going in-and-out of the area were already under 8 feet of water."Staying here now is our only option," he noted.

And while sustained winds of 130 kilometres per hour and torrential rain are creating storm surge worries along the coast, Paley said it's also a concern in New Bern despite the community's distance from the ocean.

"About a mile away as the crow flies is Bryce's Creek (which) connects to the Trent River, (which) connects to the Noose River, (which) connects to The Sound, which connects to the ocean. So the storm surge is pushing that water up in to New Bern and then up all of those channels of water," explained Paley. 

He has this message for his parents, other family members and friends who call the Winnipeg area home...they are are safe, the family is okay and they will get through this storm.

Paley said he had been trying to stay on top of the leaks but it just got to the point where he couldn't keep up any more. "The house is just being let go."