A swift water rescue team member holds a dog that was rescued Monday from floodwaters caused by Hurricane Matthew in Lumberton, N.C. Some rivers are not expected to crest until Friday.

LUMBERTON, N.C. — With helicopters overseeing the rescue operation from above, volunteer firefighters turned their military-surplus truck into the dark flood waters, cruising past a mortuary, grocery and homes in part of this city that flooded when a river swollen by Hurricane Matthew overflowed.

They joined U.S. Marshals and water rescue teams from as far away as New York and New Jersey focused Monday on retrieving about 1,500 residents who were trapped when the Lumber River unexpectedly rushed out of its banks and into buildings.

The rescue teams were expected to be back at work across eastern North Carolina today as the deluge rolled downstream toward the Atlantic Ocean. At least three rivers were forecast to reach record levels, some not cresting until Friday.

Hurricane Matthew killed more than 500 people in Haiti and at least 23 in the U.S. — nearly half of them in North Carolina. At least three people were missing.

The full extent of the disaster in North Carolina was still unclear, but it appeared that thousands of homes were damaged and more were in danger of flooding.

Rescuers still had not made it to all the submerged cars or figured out exactly how many people are missing or dead, county Emergency Management Director Stephanie Chavis said.

In many areas, Matthew’s aftermath was compared to Hurricane Floyd, which caused $3 billion in damage and destroyed 7,000 homes as it skirted the coast in 1999.

Officials were concerned that other cities could suffer the fate of Lumberton, a community of 22,000 people about 80 miles from the ocean. With electricity cut off in the storm’s wake, there was virtually no gasoline, water or food for sale.

The Lumber River crested 4 feet above its record level Sunday in Lumberton and was forecast to remain there until Saturday. A levee appeared to fail early Monday, but officials later concluded that floodwaters had flowed around it.

River flooding was happening in other places, too. In the tiny town of Nichols, S.C., downstream from Lumberton, at least 100 people spent the night on the third floor of the town hall.

Interstate 95 — a major artery for the East Coast — was closed in Lumberton and engineers had no estimate on when it would reopen. Driving was difficult, if not impossible because hundreds of roads were closed, in some cases isolating entire towns.