New Florence flooding forecasts good news for S.C.; Kirk is gaining strength
B UCKSPORT, S.C.» The last community in the way of Hurricane Florence’s floodwaters as they slowly flow to the sea got some good news Wednesday — the predictions aren’t as dire as they once were.
And it appears the Waccamaw River won’t top a lake of coal ash or the main highway to Myrtle Beach.
Officials originally expected flooding in the worst areas of Georgetown County to be 5 to 10 feet. But the latest forecast lowered that estimate to 2 to 4 feet, according to the county’s Facebook page.
“The water is spreading,” Georgetown County Administrator Sel Hemingway said Wednesday. “We are not seeing the vertical rise.”
Twelve days after the oncefierce hurricane arrived on the coast, and more than a week after it blew north and dissipated, rivers swollen by its relentless rains are still flooding homes and businesses in their paths as they make their way to the sea. And even the new flooding forecasts are still well above records set just two years ago by Hurricane Matthew.
The death toll from the storm is still adding up. North Carolina officials blamed the death of a 67yearold man who fractured his neck cleaning up storm debris Sept. 18 in Craven County on the storm. Florence has killed at least 47 people — 36 in North Carolina, nine in South Carolina and two in Virginia.
Forecasters say Tropical Storm Kirk is gaining strength in the eastern Caribbean.
The system was downgraded to a tropical depression this week, but the National Hurricane Center says it has reorganized,
At 3 p.m. MDT on Wednesday, the center of Kirk was about 260 miles east of Barbados. It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and was moving westward at 18 mph.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the islands of Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Martinique and Guadeloupe. Forecasters say some spots could get as much as 10 inches of rain. Kirk’s projected track shows it weakening into a tropical depression again along a path south of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Cuba and Jamaica.