‘Monster’ threatens millions
Florence size, strength ‘like nothing you’ve ever seen’
Hurricane Florence is a behemoth, bigger than the state of Florida and blasting toward the Carolinas as a well-organized Category 4 storm.
With a low-pressure system pushing Florence toward the coast, the hurricane is expected to continue drawing energy from the warmth of the Atlantic and intensify to near Category 5 with winds of 157 mph or higher.
“This storm is a monster. It’s big, and it’s vicious. It is an extremely dangerous, life-threatening, historic hurricane,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned. “The waves and the wind this storm may bring is
nothing like you’ve ever seen … Don’t bet your life on riding out a monster.”
A hurricane warning is in effect for nearly the entire coast of North Carolina and the northern half of South Carolina. Landfall is predicted for Thursday or Friday.
As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Florence’s winds were topping out at 140 mph, hurricane-force winds were radiating up to 60 miles from the core, and tropical-storm winds were extending out 175 miles, putting the total wind field at a potential 350 miles wide, according to the
National Hurricane Center.
But it wasn’t just the wind that was posing a threat. Forecasters warned that Florence could dump rain measuring not just in inches but feet.
A mandatory evacuation is underway for North Carolina’s barrier islands and Outer Banks, as well as in South Carolina and Virginia.
“You have to listen, and you have to get out,” President Donald Trump said Tuesday at a news conference.
To that end, motorists by the hundreds on Tuesday streamed inland on highways converted to one-way evacuation routes.
“While some weakening is expected on Thursday, Florence is forecast to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane through landfall,” forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday night.
The storm was predicted to weaken a bit as it encounters storm-hindering wind shear, or fluctuations of wind speeds in the atmosphere.
The storm, expected to make landfall at about 2 a.m. Friday, holds potential for record flooding and is expected to pose life-threatening dangers from powerful winds, prolonged rain and storm surge.
After landfall, Florence could get stuck in place when it encounters a cold front, dumping massive amounts of rain on several states, forecasters said.
North Carolina could get 20 inches of rain, if not more with as much as 10 inches elsewhere in the state and in Virginia, parts of Maryland and Washington, D.C.
In the 5 p.m. Tuesday update, the hurricane center said Florence is “expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 15 to 25 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 35 inches near the storm’s track into early next week.”
Florence isn’t the only tropical system in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Isaac was expected to move into the Caribbean by Thursday and track west. It is too early to tell if Isaac will be a threat to Florida.
Here’s what else was flaring up out there:
Hurricane Helene
Far out in the Atlantic, Helene’s winds had weakened slightly to 105 mph, and it was expected to weaken from a Category 2 hurricane, perhaps all the way down to tropical-storm status, once it gets over the cooler waters of the eastern Atlantic in the next 36 hours. Helene’s cone forecast had it turning north into the open Atlantic, making it no threat to Florida or the rest of the United States.
Meanwhile, two other weather disturbances were being monitored for potential storm development.
Potential depression to aim for Texas?
One, in the southern Gulf of Mexico, is likely to become a tropical depression by Thursday night. Forecasters have given this disturbance a 50 percent chance of development over the next two days and a 70 percent chance over the next five days. It is projected to aim toward the Gulf coasts of northeastern Mexico and southeastern Texas. It wasn’t clear if the potential depression was likely to strengthen, and forecasters are calling on authorities and residents of northeastern Mexico as well as the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts to monitor the storm’s development.
Another disturbance, in the far northeastern Atlantic, has a 50 percent chance of development and was no threat to land.
Information from The Associated Press supplemented this report.