‘Brute’ of a storm batters the east coast of America amid flood risk
Howling 90mph winds hit buildings Philippines also struck by typhoon
Hurricane Florence rolled ashore in North Carolina with howling 90mph winds and a terrifying storm surge yesterday, splintering buildings and trapping hundreds of people in high water as it settled in for what could be a long and extraordinarily destructive drenching.
At least four people were killed. They included a mother and child, who died when a tree fell on their house in Wilmington. In Lenoir County, a person was killed while plugging in a generator.
More than 60 people had to be pulled from a collapsing cinderblock motel. Hundreds more were rescued elsewhere from rising water. Others could only wait and hope someone would come for them.
As the giant 400-mile-wide hurricane pounded away, it unloaded heavy rain, flattened trees, chewed up roads and knocked out power to more than 600,000 homes and businesses.
There were no immediate reports of any deaths as of last night.
Forecasters predicted the biggest danger would be not the wind, but the water, with the prospect of up to three feet of rain over coming days that could trigger catastrophic flooding in a slow-motion disaster well inland.
By last night, Florence’s winds had weakened to 75mph, just barely a hurricane and well below the storm’s terrifying category four peak of 140mph earlier in the week. The hurricane had slowed to a crawl as it traced the North Carolina-south Carolina shoreline, drenching coastal communities for hours on end.
The town of Oriental received more than 18 inches of rain just a few hours into the deluge.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said: “Hurricane Florence is powerful, slow and relentless. It’s an uninvited brute, who doesn’t want to leave.”
Mr Cooper said the hurricane was “wreaking havoc” on the coast and could wipe out entire communities as it makes its “violent grind across our state for days”. He said parts of North Carolina had seen storm surges as high as ten feet.
Florence made landfall as a category one hurricane at 12:15pm GMT at Wrightsville Beach, a few miles east of Wilmington and not far from the South Carolina line. It was expected to start pushing its way westward across South Carolina later in the day.
For people living inland in the Carolinas, the moment of maximum peril from flash flooding could arrive days later.
About 9,700 National Guard troops and civilians were deployed with high-water vehicles, helicopters and boats that could be used to pluck people from the floodwaters.
Typhoon Mangkhut meanwhile slammed into the Phil- ippines’ north-eastern coast last night. Witnesses said the storm’s ferocious wind and blinding rain ripped off tin roof sheets and knocked out power at the start of the onslaught.
The typhoon made landfall before dawn in the coastal town of Baggao in Cagayan province on the northern tip of Luzon island, an agricultural region of flood-prone rice plains and mountain provinces often hit by landslides.
More than five million people are at risk from the storm, which the Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Centre categorises as a super typhoon with powerful winds and gusts equivalent to a category five Atlantic hurricane.
There were no immediate reports of major damages or casualties in the region, where a massive evacuation from high-risk areas has been underway for the past two days.
With a huge rain cloud band 560 miles wide, combined with seasonal monsoon rains, the typhoon could bring heavy to intense rain that could set off landslides and flash floods.