Roads are opened and the city, with help from the county and state, will begin damage assessment Sunday and Monday, Roanoke Rapids City Manager Joseph Scherer said this afternoon.

Street cleaning operations will also begin Sunday. It is still unclear how many homes and businesses were damaged, the city manager said.

The priority today, in the wake of widespread flooding from heavy rains this morning, was to get roads opened, the city manager said. All but the hardest hit roads are opened.

An inspection of Chaloner Recreation Center has yet to be done. The road to the center was still impassable earlier this afternoon.

Salvaged shoes on the porch of a house on Carolina Avenue.

Scherer said the city has submitted its request for an emergency declaration. He said the city should have an answer in two to three days on whether homeowners and businesses will qualify for assistance with repairs.

The shleter set up at T.J. Davis was set to close at 4:30 and the Red Cross was seeking motel rooms for the five remaining evacuees.

Carolina Avenue was one of the hardest hit areas in the city.

“We had to take all the floors up,” said Tim Strickland, who had family and friends helping in the overhaul effort.

Abandoned furniture outside a house on Carolina Avenue.

There was still about five inches of water underneath his house. Many items were floating in the house before the waters receded. “It messed up the wiring in my car.”

Strickland remained positive about the situation as he took a break from working. “I’m fortunate to have my family and good friends. All of them showed up. I’m so overwhelmed.”

Like many in the neighborhood, which is near the National Guard Armory, Strickland did not have flood insurance. There was a time he did but after drainage issues in the neighborhood were repaired around 2005 or 2006, he said the city informed homeowners they didn’t have to carry flood insurance.

Strickland said he would make repairs as he could. “I’m fortunate to have good family and friends.”

Carter surveys damage.

Tim’s brother, Jay, said, “You do anything for your family. That’s why family’s there.”

Down the street from Strickland, Jason Pulley was fortunate his house sat higher. The waters, however, inundated his two vehicles — a 1995 Camaro and 2012 Chevrolet Equinox.

Neighbors and family were helping one woman move out of her house. Family members said, however, the woman was too overcome with emotion to talk.

Furniture was set out in the front yard of one house and neighbors said the two vehicles parked there were ruined.

Mud shows how high the water reached on this already-vacant house on Carolina Avenue.

About four to five feet of water came in Richard Carter’s house on Carolina Avenue. The water inside the house buckled the floors and more than likely ruined oxygen equipment that was used by a relative.

Asked what he would do, Carter said, “I don’t know, I’ll probably stay with my brother.”