FLO NO MERCY
Killer storm brings wind, rain — then flood
Volunteer Amber Hersel rescues Keiyana Cromartie, 7, in James City, NC yesterday as Florence brought surging seas and endless rain into the Carolinas.
Hurricane Florence pummeled the Carolinas on Friday — killing at least five people as it trudged along at a snail’s pace throughout the day — leaving devastation and destruction in its wake.
The 400-mile-wide storm is expected to wreak havoc on the region all weekend after coming ashore at around 7:30 a.m. Friday as a Category 1.
“Florence is powerful, slow and relentless,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a press conference. “It’s an uninvited brute who doesn’t want to leave.”
The hurricane was eventually downgraded to a tropical storm, but not before causing widespread damage and blackouts throughout the Tar Heel State.
Winds were reported in the 90 mph range as Florence’s storm surge sparked severe flooding and sent uprooted trees flying.
A woman and her infant son were killed in the port city of Wilmington, NC, when a tree came crashing down on their home. A man identified as the child’s father was transported to New Hanover Regional Medical Center for treatment, police said.
The storm also left two elderly men dead — one of whom was electrocuted while trying to connect a pair of extension cords outside in the rain, officials said.
“Our hearts go out to the families of those who died in this storm,” Cooper said in a statement Friday.
In the city of Kinston, NC, a 77year-old man died from a fall after being blown down by Florence’s unrelenting winds. Relatives told authorities he was checking on his hunting dogs at the time.
A fifth person reportedly died of a heart attack inside her Hampstead, NC, home as the storm rolled in. Pender County Emergency Management Director Tom Collins told local station WWAY 3 that emergency workers were unable to reach the woman because of a downed tree in the road.
Cooper on Friday warned that the danger was not over, as looters were taking advantage of the chaotic conditions — raiding shops, homes and cars.
“Naturally you’ll have individuals that will try to look for opportunities to prey upon people when they are at their most vulnerable,” Brunswick County Sheriff John Ingram told WWAY.
Before making landfall in North Carolina near Wrightsville Beach, Florence had already caused nearly 400,000 power outages in the state and nearly 4,400 more in South Carolina.
By Friday night, more than 890,000 homes and businesses had lost power in the region, according to poweroutage.us, which keeps tabs on the US electrical grid.
In hard-hit New Bern, NC, rescuers plucked more than 100 people from rising waters.
Some 60 people had to be pulled from a collapsing cinderblock motel in Jacksonville, NC.
At one point, officials reported a storm surge as high as 10 feet near the Neuse River.
“Rescue workers are working in dangerous conditions that will only get worse today,” Cooper
said, calling the storm a “1,000year rain event” for certain parts of southeastern NC.
He said that “several hundred” rescue operations had been carried out Friday, and “there are still some people they need to get to.”
By Friday night, Florence’s winds had weakened to 70 mph north of Myrtle Beach, SC. The storm had slowed to a 6 mph crawl as it traced the North Carolina-South Carolina shoreline.
President Trump is expected to travel to the storm-ravaged region “by early to middle of next week,,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday.
Meteorologists predict rainfall totals similar to those in Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd in 1999.
“The only difference is, back then, it was within 14 days,” said the National Weather Service’s Chris Wamsley. “[With Florence] We’re looking at the same amount of rainfall in three days.”
Morehead City, NC, soaked up more than 23 inches of rain from Thursday night to Friday 8 p.m. — with downpours expected to continue all Saturday.
“I would not be shocked if three or four feet [of rain] came out of this” before Florence leaves the region, said AccuWeather’s Alyson Hoegg.
Florence is powerful, slow and relentless. It’s an uninvited brute who doesn’t want to leave. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (inset) Back then, it was within 14 days. [Now], we’re looking at the same amount of rainfall in three days. Chris Wamsley of the National Weather Service, on the wrath of Florence vs. Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd in 1999.