Hurricane Florence smashes into US as rescuers scramble

STORM SURGE EXPECTED Authorities say rain, flooding considered a bigger threat than hurricane’s winds

Florence lumbered ashore in North Carolina with howling winds at more than 140 km per hour and terrifying storm surge early on Friday, ripping apart buildings and knocking out power to a half-million homes and businesses as it settled in for what could be a long and extraordinarily destructive drenching.

More than 60 people had to be pulled from a collapsing motel at the height of the storm, and many more who defied evacuation orders were hoping to be rescued. Pieces of torn-apart buildings flew through the air.

More ominously, forecasters said the onslaught would last for hours and hours because Florence was barely creeping along at nine km per hour and still drawing energy from the ocean.

There were no immediate reports of any deaths.

Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at 7.15 am at Wrightsville Beach, a few miles east of Wilmington, not far from the South Carolina line, coming ashore along a mostly boarded-up, emptied-out stretch of coastline.

Its storm surge and the prospect of 1 to 3½ feet of rain were considered a bigger threat than its winds. Forecasters said catastrophic freshwater flooding is expected well inland over the next few days as Florence crawls across the Carolinas.

Coastal streets flowed with frothy ocean water, and at least 490,000 homes and businesses were without power, mostly in North Carolina, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks the nation’s electrical grid.

At 9 am, the center of Florence was wobbling about 30 km southwest of Wilmington, its winds down to 140 km per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane-force winds extended 130 km from its centre, and tropical-storm-force winds reached out 315 km.

Forecasters said Florence’s surge could cover all but a sliver of the Carolina coast under as much as 3.4 metres of sea water.

A gust of 169 km per hour was recorded at the Wilmington airport, surpassing the power of Hurricane Fran two decades ago.

Farther up the coast, in New Bern, about 150 people waited to be rescued from floods on the Neuse River, WXII-TV reported. The city said two Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) teams were working on swift-water rescues, and more were on the way.

The worst of the storm’s fury had yet to reach coastal South Carolina, where emergency managers said it was not too late for people to get out. “There is still time, but not a lot of time,” said Derrec Becker of the South Carolina department of emergency management.

North Carolina officials said more than 3,000 people were relocated from prisons and juvenile detention centres in the path of Florence, and more than 300 county prisoners were transferred to state facilities.

WILMINGTON:Hurricane