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 National Hurricane Center dubbed Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight

The rain from the system had moved into southeast Virginia on Tuesday. Along North Carolina's Outer Banks, the storm closed vulnerable coastal highway North Carolina 12 on Ocracoke Island and threatened several homes in Rodanthe, where erosion and rising sea levels have destroyed more than a half-dozen beachfront homes this decade.

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.