Hurricane Florence Poised to Hit, Sit on US East Coast

The area to the north of Florence’s landfall along the North Carolina coast-storm surge is always worst to the “right” of a storm’s center, where its rotation pushes water onshore-is less populated and developed than the New Jersey and NY shores. The forecast track has the storm stalling along the coast throughout Friday and into Saturday. “The biggest hazard that we’re anxious about is storm surge”, Long said.

The last time the USA capital declared a state of emergency was in January 2016 when a winter storm dubbed “Snowzilla” blanketed the capital region in knee-deep snow. The storm’s 12-mph forward speed Thursday morning was a marked drop from Wednesday’s 17-mph speeds.

Just as Hurricane Florence closes in on the Southeast, the area covered by hurricane-force winds has doubled – meaning far more people will get blasted with winds 74 miles per hour or greater.

Hurricane force winds are possible along and just inland from the southeast coast of North Carolina from Thursday night through late Friday night. Storm surge of 13 feet on top of a high tide at 7 feet could overwhelm Carolina Beach.

By midday, Spanish moss blew sideways in the trees as the winds increased in Wilmington.

Almost 1000 prisoners in SC will not be moved from their cells, despite a mandatory evacuation order in the area.

Tim Bowen said nearby cities like Kinston and Goldsboro are more inland, but have a history of severe flooding and the situation might be even worse for evacuees. The power company has warned that up to 3 million people could be left without power for an extended period of time following Hurricane Florence.

About 300,000 people have been evacuated from South Carolina, McMaster said.

Mr Cooper’s warnings were echoed by his SC counterpart, Henry McMaster, who stated that emergency services may not be able to reach residents if they remain in areas where evacuation orders have been issued.

“It’s been really nice”, Nicole Roland said.

Two other tropical storms – Isaac and Olivia – have also been in the vicinity this week, with the National Weather Service estimating that some 10.15 million people lived in areas under either hurricane or tropical storm warnings.

Even if Florence were downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, it would still cause extensive damage, Abrams says.

Media captionWhy do people ignore hurricane warnings? But previous research has shown that the strongest hurricanes are getting wetter, more intense and intensifying faster because of human-caused climate change.

More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate the coastlines of the Carolinas and Virginia. Home Depot and Lowes activated emergency response centers to get generators, trash bags and bottled water to stores before and after the storm. The two hardware chains said they sent in a total of around 1,100 trucks. This shift to the south certainly brings Charlotte into play for much heavier rainfall, and I think that’s going to be the biggest issue that we’re going to have to deal with in the Charlotte area is soaking heavy rains that could fall not only over a day but maybe several days after landfall. The more the Great Lakes one wins, the more southerly Florence will be. But the storm surge will be no less devastating for homes and business located there.

“I’m staying. The building’s solid and Buddha will protect us”, she told AFP news agency. “I’ve got four cats inside the house”.