Roads clogged as multitudes flee monster storm
Roads were clogged with people fleeing North and South Carolina early on Wednesday as the monstrous Category 4 Hurricane Florence rumbled towards the eastern US as the biggest storm there in decades.
While many coastal residents heeded mandatory evacuation orders, others boarded up homes and businesses and chose to brave the storm, forecast to trigger severe flash flooding as it dumps as much as a metre of rain in some areas.
Life-threatening storm surges of up to a staggering 4m in some places were also forecast.
North Carolina governor Roy Cooper warned that staying put would be a grave mistake and said people in evacuation zones “must get out now”.
“This is not a storm people need to ride out,” Cooper said.
“This is a storm that is historic, maybe once in a lifetime.”
Up to 1.7-million people in North and South Carolina and Virginia have been given voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders, emergency management officials said, as the storm churned across the Atlantic Ocean towards the coast.
The eastbound lanes of several major highways have been shut down to allow for a smooth flow of traffic inland.
Jeff Byard, of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), said: “We are already experiencing [heavy] traffic on some evacuation routes.”
Forecasters predicted that Florence would make landfall in the Carolinas late on Thursday or early on Friday as a still powerful Category 3 hurricane.
As of 5am (1pm SA time) Florence was a dangerous Category 4 hurricane packing sustained 220km/h winds, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said.
It was located 925km eastsoutheast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and moving at 28km/h in a west-northwest direction.
In the Oval Office, President Donald Trump urged people to heed orders to evacuate, saying: “If you are asked to leave, get out.”
Also in the Oval Office, Fema administrator Brock Long said Florence might be a very devastating storm.
“The power will be off for weeks,” he said.
“You’re going to be displaced from your home in coastal areas.
“There will be flooding inland as well.”
Fema official Byard said: “This storm is not going to be a glancing blow, [but] a direct hit.
“Hurricane Florence is the strongest storm to target the Carolinas and this part of our country in decades.”
The hurricane centre said Florence was expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it made landfall, bringing life-threatening storm surge to coastal areas.
States of emergency have been declared in Maryland, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Washington DC, amid concern over potential torrential rain and flooding.
The last time the US capital declared a state of emergency was in January 2016 when a winter storm dubbed Snowzilla blanketed the capital region in knee-deep snow.
In Charleston, South Carolina, some residents were making preparations to leave on Tuesday while others planned to ride out the storm.
Streets were quiet. Schools and many offices and businesses were closed.
Boeing engineer Michael Kennedy said he planned to leave on Tuesday for his parents’ home in Atlanta, Georgia.
Charleston resident William Belli said he would not be joining the exodus.
“Been through it!” he said, referring to Hurricane Hugo, which caused major damage in South Carolina in 1989. “Not worried in the least.” South Carolina governor Henry McMaster ordered the mandatory evacuation of onemillion coastal residents on Monday.
Schools in 26 of the state’s 46 counties were ordered closed from Tuesday.
North Carolina governor Cooper ordered an evacuation of the Outer Banks, barrier islands that are a popular tourist destination, and parts of coastal Dare County.
In Virginia, 245,000 coastal residents were ordered out.
In Maryland, Governor Larry Hogan said his state was readying for potentially historic and catastrophic rainfall, lifethreatening flooding, and high winds. –
‘Hurricane Florence is the strongest storm to target the Carolinas . . . in decades’ Brock Long
FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY