With the remnants of Hurricane Florence continuing to deluge the southeastern U.S., a small army of drones is being deployed to identify and fix damage caused by flooding.

The head of the National Flood Insurance Program told CNBC’s "Squawk on the Street" Monday that the government is prepared to handle the anticipated rash of claims filed by homeowners in the upcoming days and weeks.

Rising flood waters threatened communities across the Carolinas on Tuesday as storm Florence hit the U.S. Northeast with heavy rains and tornadoes after killing at least 32 people.

As Hurricane Florence surged toward land last week, meteorologists and emergency agencies took notice. The storm was a Category 4 hurricane, the second-strongest type, and it was drawing a bead on the Carolina coast.

The drenching rains and massive flooding caused by Florence are expected to inflict a high financial toll on homeowners in North Carolina and other states, as only a small percentage are covered by flood insurance that could help offset the costs of rebuilding their damaged homes.

The number of Americans with flood insurance is on the rise, yet Hurricane Florence is likely to make it painfully clear that too many homeowners in the Carolinas and other vulnerable regions remain unprotected.

This nightmare called Tropical Depression Florence is far from over. "Many people who think that the storm has missed them have yet to see its threat," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said. "This system is unloading epic amounts of rainfall -- in some places measured in feet, not inches."

Deadly storm Florence moved across western North Carolina early on Monday and continued to dump rain that has nowhere to go except to swell rivers, flood highways and homes, and threaten more lives as it heads towards Virginia and New England.

A potentially devastating Hurricane Florence is rumbling toward the Carolina coast this weekend, but for as historic as each new storm seems to be, insurers are preparing in relatively typical ways like activating additional staff in preparation for an onslaught of claims.

Hurricane Florence is making landfall in North Carolina, creeping ashore at 6 mph — but bringing winds of 90 mph, a massive storm surge, and a rain system that will soak much of the state and South Carolina for days. Forecasters warn of "life —threatening, catastrophic flash flooding."

Hurricane Florence is still hundreds of miles off the U.S. East Coast, but insurers are starting to see their potential costs from one type of claim mount as companies halt operations to let employees flee.

U.S. insurers are bracing for what could be $20 billion in losses as Hurricane Florence barrels toward the Carolinas and Virginia, bringing punishing rains and potentially deadly flooding.

As Hurricane Florence bears down on the southeastern United States, nearly 759,000 homes are in the storm’s path, and a worst-case rebuilding scenario could cost more than $170 billion, according to an estimate from real estate data provider CoreLogic.

As Hurricane Florence churned toward an eventual Eastern Seaboard landfall, evacuations were imposed for parts of three East Coast states Tuesday and millions of Americans prepared for what could become one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to hit the region in decades.

More than 1.5 million people were ordered to evacuate their homes along the U.S. Atlantic coast as Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm and the most powerful to menace the Carolinas in nearly three decades, barreled in on Tuesday.