The driver, Richard Walton Robinson, was in a blue Subaru Crosstrek SUV when he drove around sheriff’s office vehicles and into high water.

Southeast North Carolina grapples with flash flooding and road washouts from what the U.S. National Hurricane Center dubbed Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight

Parts of southeastern North Carolina were still underwater Tuesday after a storm that wasn't quite organized enough to get a name dropped historic amounts of rain on an area that has suffered floods of a lifetime at least four other times in the past 25 years.

On Monday at 11:25 a.m. the National Weather Service issued a flood watch valid from 8 p.m. until Tuesday 8 a.m. The watch is for Gaston, Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Union and York counties.

An 80-year-old man died after his vehicle became submerged on a closed Brunswick County roadway, according to a news release from the N.C. State Highway Patrol. Richard Walton Robinson of Southport was located deceased inside his submerged vehicle.

More people die from floods every year than tornadoes, lightning, or hurricanes, according to the National Weather Service.

Troopers said the man's vehicle was washed away in floodwaters at the Lockwood Folly River Bridge in Brunswick County.