WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Matthew was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone Sunday morning but still had some unsafe fight left in it, dumping more than a foot of rain on North Carolina in a deluge that flooded homes and businesses as far as 100 miles inland.

At least 20 people in the US have died in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, which battered the East Coast this weekend, before weakening this morning before going out to sea.

But while work crews are contending with fallen power lines and downed trees, flooding - particularly from swollen rivers - remains a key concern in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, where many waterways that are absorbing torrential rainfall aren't expected to crest until Monday or Tuesday.

McCrory said there have been 887 swift water rescues since Saturday; 574 rescues were in Cumberland County alone.

A rescue team was responding to emergency calls in Fayetteville, North Carolina, when they spotted a woman and her toddler trapped in rising floodwaters.

A boat joined them and rescued the woman, who was taken to the hospital because she was exhausted and suffering from hypothermia, he said.

He added that, while four people are confirmed missing in that region, the full scale of the disaster is not yet known, with many places still cut off by flood waters. The Harnett County Sheriff says a person drowned after they drove past a barricade near Carolina Drive and was swept away into a creek.

"As anticipated, we have had some impacts from the storm and I have directed our state agencies to make every resource available to local authorities as they respond to floods and power outages, particularly in the Hampton Roads area", Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in the release.

Most of the deaths happened when vehicles were swept away by floodwaters.

Storm surge flooding has occurred in Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.

Hurricane Matthew left up to 90% of some parts of Haiti destroyed, officials say.

Though the storm has weakened, serious threats remain: Up to 15 inches of rain are possible near and east of Interstate 95, the hurricane center said.

The storm is now moving offshore slowly just south of Cape Hatteras with 75 miles per hour winds and continued heavy rainfall.

At least four lives have been lost in the USA from the storm, including an elderly Florida couple who appeared to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning while using a generator, The Associated Press has reported.

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During the storm water rushed through streets, making roadways look more like rivers in parts of Jacksonville, Merritt Island, Fleming Island and other Florida communities.

Matthew, the most powerful Atlantic storm since 2007, was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone on Sunday after its rampage through the Caribbean killed almost 900 people in Haiti.

An estimated 2 million people in the Southeast were ordered to evacuate their homes as Matthew closed in.

Just up the coast, Carolina Beach issued a mandatory evacuation order for visitors and nonresidents, and considered a curfew if the bridge into the town was buffeted by winds in excess of 45 miles per hour.

At 5:00 a.m. EST (0900 GMT) on Sunday, the storm was about 50 miles (80 km) east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.

In the United States, more than 2 million U.S. homes and business had lost power.

About 50,000 customers lost power by late Friday.

Forecasters said the storm should be well east of the coast Sunday afternoon.

Savannah is experiencing major flooding and according to WTOC, Hurricane Matthew's storm surge of 12.56 feet broke the record set by Hurricane David in 1979 as the highest tide in Savannah's history.

More than a million people in SC and North Carolina were without power, and at least four separate sections of Interstate 95 - the main artery linking the East Coast from Florida to ME - were closed in North Carolina.

Deaths were recorded in all four states, including some from falling trees and some from carbon monoxide fumes from a generator.

In Georgia, three people died, including a wheelchair user after two trees fell on his home.

Property data firm CoreLogic projected that insured losses on home and commercial properties would amount to $4 billion to $6 billion, well below Hurricane Katrina's $40 billion and Superstorm Sandy's $20 billion.