While the water has yet to totally recede in some areas like hard-hit Windsor - making estimating the total dollar cost difficult - other areas have already started adding up the costs.
The Daily News of Jacksonville reports an official with the Onslow County Emergency Management and Homeland Security estimates damage there at almost $7 million and rising. Assistant Director Norman Bryson said floodwaters made almost 40 homes and almost 20 apartments uninhabitable.
Governor Perdue's office says 19 counties have requested government assistance. Federal and state officials were to begin assessing damage in those counties Tuesday. A decision about which counties qualify for help could be made by the end of the week.
Officials in Windsor say more than 200 businesses and homes are damaged. The scenes of people surveying damage, cleaning up and gingerly making their way through still-flooded roads were repeated again Tuesday.
"I got about 17 inches of water this time, and five feet from Floyd," said Russelll Phelps of the Cooper Insurance Agency on King Street, referring to the 1999 hurricane whose rainfall totals were surpassed in some places by last week's storm.
"But you've got to do the same things with 17 inches that you've got to do with five feet: carpets, sheet rock, computers, everything," he said. "It's total chaos here right now."
Gov. Beverly Perdue visited Windsor on Sunday, comparing the damage to that caused by Floyd's floodwaters. Perdue encouraged anyone who rebuilds to elevate their buildings.
North Carolina officials are are also worried that torrential rain and floods may have also damaged farmers' crops.
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said Tuesday he's most worried about cotton, soybeans, sweet potatoes, soybeans and any tobacco still in the fields.
In some parts of the state, cotton fields were under a foot of water.
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