Storm Alberto: Thousands evacuated after mudslides leave North Carolina dam in danger of 'imminent failure'

Residents living near Lake Tahoma 'asked to flee' by authorities

Thousands of people have been evacuated after mudslides left a dam in North Carolina in danger of "imminent failure", officials say.

Residents near Lake Tahoma, in the state's western mountains, were "being asked to flee", America's National Weather Service said, following heavy rain and flash flooding caused by Storm Alberto.

Around 2,000 people are thought to be affected.

Forecasters warned the leftovers of the Atlantic hurricane season's first named storm are still capable of causing treacherous flooding as heavy precipitation spreads deeper into the nation's midsection.

Flash flood watches were in effect for parts of several states from Alabama to Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, the Carolinas, and Virginia and West Virginia.

McDowell County Emergency Management deputy director Adrienne Jones said the dam had not failed, but an engineer who inspected the scene was concerned enough to order the evacuation until the dam could be thoroughly examined.

Ms Jones added that about 200 residents were in three shelters, set up nearby. Five minor injuries had been reported during water rescues as creeks and streams overflowed their banks and rock slides closed roads, she added.

The storm caused more than 25,000 power outages in Alabama on Tuesday, a day after making landfall in Florida. Many of the outages were caused by trees rooted in soggy soil falling across utility lines.

"We've had a lot of rain, but we got lucky. It was a constant rain but not a heavy rain," said Regina Myers, emergency management director in Walker County northwest of Birmingham.

Subtropical storm Alberto rolled ashore in the Florida Panhandle before quickly weakening to a depression.

In Cuba, flooding damaged an oil refinery and caused crude oil to spill into Cienfuegos Bay as the remnants of Alberto continued to drench the island in heavy rain. State-owned TV showed authorities using barriers on Tuesday to try to contain the spill from the Cienfuegos refinery in central Cuba, about 150 miles southeast of Havana.

In North Carolina, a television news anchor and a photojournalist were killed earlier this week when a tree became uprooted from rain-soaked ground and toppled onto their SUV as they covered the storm.

WYFF-TV said news anchor Mike McCormick and photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer were killed.

Alberto was more of a rainstorm than a wind threat, but the National Weather Service said at least one tornado had been confirmed.

The weather service said its meteorologists confirmed a weak tornado with maximum winds of 85 mph (147 kph) hit an area around Cameron, South Carolina, earlier this week. No one was hurt.

Additional reporting by AP.