Hurricane Florence September 2018

[Linville]

This appears to be a powerful storm that will hit the east Coast of USA.

NC , SC, VA.....please be aware.

A picture from space station 9 am 9/10/18.

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Mandatory evacuations are taking place already in SC I have heard.

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Potential landfall......

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WOW I know this area well.

I have been here many times.

It looks to be very severe.

The beaches will be changed if this is correct.

[Charon]

so all of you whom pray or can send good energy, please do so. Call relatives and friends in the area to be hit by the storm.

and may god be with them all.

Oh Lord have mercy. Hurricane Florence Could Be the Worst Storm to Ever Hit North of Florida
Since records began, only 10 major hurricanes have made landfall around the Carolinas. This one has the potential to blow them all out of the water.

Evacuations are going out. Do not take this lightly, please.

[D-izzy]

Wow, it's that time of year again I guess...

But that really does look like a big one.

Pray that everyone stays as safe as possible, and looks out for those in need of help and assistance...

[Lechter]

The real challenge presented by Florence is flooding and water damage since the ground in the area being approached is oversaturated due to abundance of summer rains.  Add to that, several models are predicting that the storm stalls and rains continuously over the area for days.

Please stay safe and dry...

[quickfix]

Sorry to sound daft but is this the mid Atlantic storm that will also have an effect on the UK weather? Everyone's speaking about the severity of this storm. Hopefully it is not as bad as they are forecasting, but please don't take any chances guys!

Pray that everyone is safe and okay

[D-izzy]

Hi quickfix, I would take a guess that your correct and it is the same storm they have been talking about in the media... 

Though generally speaking it's not uncommon for the UK to get the, 'tail end' or a resurgence of these big storm cells that hit the South-West coast of the USA.

When they go back over water(i.e.The Atlantic Ocean), the storm will call gather up more energy and usually more water with it, it's that the UK and Ireland sometimes get hit with too, though not as powerfully as in the US...

This is going to be a real big one.  It's a Cat.4 hurricane and is considered a very serious situation in the US.  I believe it will make landfall just before the weekend - people have been boarding up and putting up flood defences all week long...

It's one to watch if you want to see the power of mother nature...But definitely not one you'd want to be anywhere near!

D-Izzy

[Roses]

I'm sending good positive vibes to those in the storm's path. It really seems like a record breaking storm & I feel awful for those people who could lose everything. I hope they are all in a safe place.

[Charon]

Hurricane Florence claims lives of mom, baby
The Associated Press Sep 14, 2018 Updated 1 hr ago

NORTH CAROLINA (AP) — A mother and infant in North Carolina are dead after a tree fell on their home - the first two fatalities of Hurricane Florence.

The Wilmington Police Department said Friday that the two were killed when a tree fell on their house. The father was transported to a hospital for treatment. No other information was given.

The hurricane came ashore early Friday, pounding the state with torrential rain and high winds.

Forecasters have been predicting catastrophic flash flooding. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says more than 16 inches of rain have fallen at locations in southeast North Carolina and another 20 to 25 inches is on the way.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

EDIT: I HAVE READ that two more have died. One by plugging in a generator. No further info. The other was a woman whom suffered and died from a heart attack. No further info.

It was downgraded to category one or so, but three inches of rain an hour does a lot of damage.

[Linville]

Wow it seems to be stalled over Wilmington NC since this morning when I looked and watched the weather channel.

This is yet to be determined how bad it will get.

Some of this is hype it seems but then again I am not in the heavy storm so it is easy for me to say.

Lets keep an eye on this.

And of course it is NO hype that a tree killed some people.
I am sorry for that of course.

[Charon]

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) - Blowing ashore with howling 90 mph (155 kph) winds, Hurricane Florence splintered buildings, trapped hundreds of people and swamped entire communities along the Carolina coast Friday in what could be just the opening act in a watery, two-part, slow-motion disaster. At least four people were killed.

Forecasters warned that drenching rains of 1 to 3½ feet (30 centimeters to 1 meter) as the storm crawls westward across North and South Carolina could trigger epic flooding well inland over the next few days.

As 400-mile-wide (645-kilometer-wide) Florence pounded away at the coast with torrential downpours and surging seas, rescue crews used boats to reach more than 360 people besieged by rising waters in New Bern, while many of their neighbors awaited help. More than 60 people had to be rescued in another town as a cinderblock motel collapsed at the height of the storm’s fury.

Florence flattened trees, crumbled roads and knocked out power to more than 840,000 homes and businesses, and the assault wasn’t anywhere close to being over, with the siege in the Carolinas expected to last all weekend.

“It’s an uninvited brute who doesn’t want to leave,” said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

The hurricane was “wreaking havoc” and could wipe out entire communities as it makes its “violent grind across our state for days,” the governor said. He said parts of North Carolina had seen storm surges — the bulge of seawater pushed ashore by the hurricane — as high as 10 feet (3 meters).

A mother and baby were killed when a tree fell on a house, according to a tweet from Wilmington police. Also, a 77-year-old man was apparently knocked down by the wind and died after going out to check on his hunting dogs, Lenoir County authorities said, and the governor’s office said a man was electrocuted while trying to connect extension cords in the rain.

Shaken after seeing waves crashing on the Neuse River just outside his house in New Bern, restaurant owner and hurricane veteran Tom Ballance wished he had evacuated.

“I feel like the dumbest human being who ever walked the face of the earth,” he said.

After reaching a terrifying Category 4 peak of 140 mph (225 kph) earlier in the week, Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at 7:15 a.m. at Wrightsville Beach, a few miles (kilometers) east of Wilmington and not far from the South Carolina line. It came ashore along a mostly boarded-up, emptied-out stretch of coastline.

By Friday evening, Florence was downgraded to a tropical storm, its winds weakening to 70 mph (112 kph) as it pushed inland. But it was clear that this was really about the water, not the wind.

Florence’s forward movement during the day slowed to a near-standstill — sometimes it was going no faster than a human can walk — and that enabled it to pile on the rain. The town of Oriental, North Carolina, got more than 20 inches (50 centimeters) just a few hours into the deluge. Other communities got well over a foot (30 centimeters).

The flooding soon spread into South Carolina, swamping places like North Myrtle Beach, in a resort area known for its white sands and multitude of golf courses.

For people living inland in the Carolinas, the moment of maximum peril from flash flooding could arrive days later, because it takes time for rainwater to drain into rivers and for those streams to crest.

Preparing for the worst, about 9,700 National Guard troops and civilians were deployed with high-water vehicles, helicopters and boats.

Authorities warned, too, of the threat of mudslides and the risk of an environmental disaster from floodwaters washing over industrial waste sites and hog farms.

Florence was seen as a major test for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was heavily criticized as slow and unprepared last year for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where the death toll was put at nearly 3,000.

The National Hurricane Center said Florence will eventually break up over the southern Appalachians and make a right hook to the northeast, its rainy remnants moving into the mid-Atlantic states and New England by the middle of next week.

Meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com said Florence could dump a staggering 18 trillion gallons (68 trillion liters) of rain over a week on North Carolina, South Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maryland. That’s enough to fill the Chesapeake Bay or cover the entire state of Texas with nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters) of water, he calculated.

North Carolina alone is forecast to get 9.6 trillion gallons (36 trillion liters), enough to cover the Tar Heel state to a depth of about 10 inches (25 centimeters).

On Friday, coastal streets in the Carolinas flowed with frothy ocean water, and pieces of torn-apart buildings flew through the air. The few cars out on a main street in Wilmington had to swerve to avoid fallen trees, metal debris and power lines.

A wind gust at the Wilmington airport was clocked at 105 mph (nearly 170 kph), the highest since Hurricane Helene in 1958. Nationwide, airlines canceled more than 2,400 flights through Sunday.

In Jacksonville, North Carolina, next to Camp Lejeune, firefighters and police fought wind and rain as they went door-to-door to pull dozens of people out of the Triangle Motor Inn after the structure began to crumble and the roof started to collapse.

In New Bern, population 29,000, flooding on the Neuse River left 500 people in peril.

“WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU,” the city tweeted around 2 a.m. “You may need to move up to the second story, or to your attic, but WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU.”

Boat teams including volunteers rescued some 360 residents, including Sadie Marie Holt, 67, who first tried to row out of her neighborhood during Florence’s assault.

“The wind was so hard, the waters were so hard, that trying to get out we got thrown into trailers. We got thrown into mailboxes, houses, trees,” said Holt, who had stayed at home because of a doctor’s appointment that was later canceled. She retreated and was eventually rescued by a boat crew; 140 more awaited assistance.

Ashley Warren and boyfriend Chris Smith managed to paddle away from their home in a boat with their two dogs, and the experience left her shaken.

“Honestly, I grew up in Wilmington. I love hurricanes. But this one has been an experience for me,” she said. “We might leave.”

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