Strengthening storm makes landfall in N.C.
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Hurricane Isaias has made landfall near Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane touched down just after 11 p.m. on Monday with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.
Coastal shops and restaurants had closed early, power began to flicker at oceanfront hotels and even the most adventurous of beachgoers had abandoned the sand Monday night as newly restrengthened Isaias sped toward the Carolinas.
The National Hurricane Center warned oceanside home dwellers to brace for storm surge up to 5 feet and up to 8 inches of rain in spots, as Isaias moved up the coast. The Carolinas weren’t the only states at risk.
“All those rains could produce flash flooding across portions of the eastern Carolinas and midAtlantic, and even in the northeast U.S.,” said Daniel Brown, senior hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. A tropical storm warning extended all the way up to Maine, where flash flooding is possible in some areas on Wednesday.
The center also warned of possible tornadoes in North Carolina on Monday night and early Tuesday, and from eastern Virginia to southern New England later Tuesday.
Isaias was upgraded again from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane. The storm was centered about 40 miles east northeast of Myrtle Beach. It was moving northeast at 22 mph.
Isaias killed two people in the Caribbean and roughed up the Bahamas but remained at sea as it brushed past Florida over the weekend, providing some welcome relief to emergency managers who had to accommodate maskwearing evacuees in storm shelters.
Authorities in Myrtle Beach ordered swimmers out of the water to avoid rough surf and strong rip currents. By nightfall, power began to flicker at beachfront hotels as Isaias crossed the last bit of warm water on its path toward the U.S. mainland.
Still, on this part of the South Carolina and North Carolina coasts that has been affected to varying degrees by seven tropical storms or hurricanes since 2014, residents weren’t panicking.
“It’s just going to be a lot of wind and high tide,” said Mike Fuller, who has lived along the coast for more than a decade.
As the storm neared the shore, a gauge on a pier in Myrtle Beach recorded its third highest water level since it was set up in 1976. Only Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 pushed more salt water inland.