‘Monster’ hurricane nears Carolinas
WILMINGTON, North Carolina — Motorists streamed inland on highways converted to one-way evacuation routes Tuesday as about 1.7 million people in three states were warned to get out of the way of Hurricane Florence, a hair-raising storm taking dead aim at the Carolinas with winds of 225 kilometres an hour and potentially ruinous rains.
Florence was expected to blow ashore late Thursday or early Friday, then slow down and wring itself out for days, unloading 30 to 60 centimetres of rain that could cause flooding well inland and wreak environmental havoc by washing over industrial waste sites and hog farms.
Forecasters and politicians pleaded with the public to take the warnings seriously and minced no words in describing the threat.
“This storm is a monster. It’s big and it’s vicious. It is an extremely, dangerous, lifethreatening, historic hurricane,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said.
He added: “The waves and the wind this storm may bring is nothing like you’ve ever seen. Even if you’ve ridden out storms before, this one is different. Don’t bet your life on riding out a monster.” Some hoped for divine intervention. “I’m prayed up and as ready as I can get,” Steven Hendrick said as he filled up gasoline cans near Conway, South Carolina.
More than 5.4 million people live in areas under hurricane warnings or watches on the U.S. East Coast, according to the National Weather Service, and another four million people were under a tropical storm watch.
U.S. President Donald Trump declared states of emergency for North and South Carolina and Virginia, opening the way for federal aid. He said the federal government is “absolutely, totally prepared” for Florence.
All three states ordered mass evacuations along the coast. But getting out of harm’s way could prove difficult.
Florence is so wide that a life-threatening storm surge was being pushed almost 500 kilometres ahead of its eye, and so wet that a swath from South Carolina to Ohio and Pennsylvania could get deluged.
People across the region rushed to buy bottled water and other supplies, board up their homes, pull their boats out of the water and get out of town.
A line of heavy traffic moved away from the coast on Interstate 40, the main route between the port city of Wilmington and inland Raleigh. Between the two cities, about two hours apart, the traffic flowed smoothly in places and became gridlocked in others because of fender-benders.
Only a trickle of vehicles was going in the opposite direction, including pickup trucks carrying plywood and other building materials.
Lines formed at service stations, and some started running out of gas as far west as Raleigh, with yellow bags, signs or rags placed over the pumps to show they were out of order. Some store shelves were picked clean.
Florence is the most dangerous of three tropical systems in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Isaac was east of the Lesser Antilles and expected to pass south of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba, while Hurricane Helene was moving northward away from land. Forecasters also were tracking two other disturbances.
The coastal surge from Florence could leave the eastern tip of North Carolina under more than 2.75 metres of water in spots, projections showed.
“This one really scares me,” National Hurricane Center director Ken Graham said.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Olivia began dropping light rain on Maui and the Big Island on Tuesday as its outer rain bands approached Hawaii.
The storm could deposit 25 to 40 centimetres of rain on the islands, though some areas could get as much as 50 cm, Central Pacific Hurricane Center meteorologist Matthew Foster said.
Some places might be more blocked from the rainfall, depending on the wind direction, he said.
Olivia was about 300 km east of Maui and heading toward that island as it packed maximum sustained winds of about 95 km/h.
Maui or Oahu counties appeared mostly likely to experience the worst effects, Foster said.
Officials were worried about landslides in west Maui because brush fires during Hurricane Lane three weeks ago wiped out vegetation, Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said.