North Carolina braces as ‘threat to life’ alert issued for hurricane
● Storm could kill ‘a lot of people’ ● Trump rejects death toll
The outer bands of wind and rain from a weakened, but still lethal Hurricane Florence began lashing North Carolina yesterday as the monster storm moved in for a prolonged and potentially catastrophic drenching along America’s south-east coast.
Florence’s winds had dropped from a peak of 140mph to 105mph by last night UK time, reducing the hurricane from a terrifying category four to two. But forecasters warned the widening storm and its likelihood of lingering around the coast day after day would bring seawater surging on to land and torrential downpours.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has warned the hurricane could kill “a lot of people” despite being downgraded yesterday. “It truly is really about the whole size of this storm,” National Hurricane Centre director Ken Graham said.
“The larger and the slower the storm is, the greater the threat and the impact.”
As Hurricane Florence approached, US president Donald Trump yesterday rejected the official conclusion that nearly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico from last year’s Hurricane Maria.
He argued – without evidence – that the number was wrong and called it a plot by Democrats to make him “look as bad as possible”.
Mr Trump picked a fresh fight over his administration’s response to the category four storm that smashed into the US territory in September last year. He visited the island in early October to assess the situation amid widespread criticism over recovery efforts.
His claims were delivered as power outages started creeping up along the North Carolina coast last night.
Electric utilities and co-operatives had reported about 12,000 outages statewide as of
7pm GMT, with nearly all of them at the coast. Forecasters said Florence’s eye could come ashore this afternoon UK time around the North Carolinasouth Carolina line.
The storm is likely to hover along the coast tomorrow, unloading water on both states.
The impact could be akin to what the Houston area saw during Hurricane Harvey just over a year ago when catastrophic inland flooding swamped homes, businesses, farms and industrial sites.
The police chief of a barrier island in Florence’s bullseye said he was asking for next-ofkin contact information from residents who refused to leave.
“I’m not going to put our personnel in harm’s way, especially for people that we’ve already told to evacuate,” Wrightsville Beach Police chief Dan House said.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper urged residents to remain alert despite changing forecasts.
“Don’t relax, don’t get complacent,” he said. “Stay on guard. This is a powerful storm that can kill. Today the threat becomes a reality.”
About 5.25 million people live in areas under hurricane warnings or watches and 4.9 million in places covered by tropical storm warnings or watches, the National Weather Service said. Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters said Florence eventually could strike as a category one, with winds less than 100mph, but that was still enough to cause at least $1 billion (£760m) in damage.
Scientists said it was too soon to say what role, if any, global warming played in the storm.
Airlines had cancelled about 1,200 flights and counting by last night.
Some airports in the Carolinas virtually shut down. Home Depot and Lowe’s activated emergency response centres and sent in around 1,100 trucks to get generators, trash bags and bottled water to stores before and after the storm.
The only route off North Carolina’s Hatteras Island was closed as Hurricane Florence approached.