‘UNINVITED BRUTE’ LEAVES FIVE DEAD
Though downgraded to a tropical storm, Florence is still predicted to bring 20 to 30 inches of rain to parts of the Carolinas
Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina on Friday, battering the state with a powerful combination of wind and rain. At least five deaths have been linked to the storm, according to officials. Some areas are grappling with intense flooding, while many in the city of New Bern required rescue in the early hours of the day.
The dangerous storm, which was downgraded to a tropical storm Friday afternoon, is expected to keep lashing parts of North and South Carolina into the weekend.
Authorities in North Carolina had linked at least five deaths to the storm as of Friday evening, including a mother and an infant killed when a tree fell onto their home.
Officials in Pender County said a woman died Friday morning when she was having a heart attack and emergency crews were unable to reach her in time because of downed trees and debris in the road. The crews trying to get to her attempted to move the debris with a front loader, but a tree went through the windshield of the equipment, causing further delays, the officials said.
“This happened this morning at the height of our storm,” Tammy Proctor, a spokeswoman, said
“These slow and large systems are definitely our nemesis. It’s the rainfall.”
— Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami
in a telephone interview. “High winds, we have tree debris … when our EMS people can’t get to something, it bothers them.”
In Lenoir County, local authorities reported two deaths, both in Kinston, a city southeast of Raleigh. A 78-year-old man was electrocuted Friday morning when trying to connect two extension cords in the rain, according to Roger Dail, the Lenoir County director of emergency services; family members found his body. A 77-year-old man’s body was also found by relatives on Friday morning. Officials believe he was killed after being blown down by wind when going outside to check on his hunting dogs, Dail said.
Police in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Friday afternoon said that a woman and an infant were killed in that city when a tree fell on their home. The police department also said in a statement online that a third person — the father — was injured and taken to a hospital.
Collapsed roofs and other structures were reported Friday morning in the Morehead City and New Bern areas of North Carolina. New Bern was particularly hard hit, with reports of more than 100 people stranded in their homes or cars in need of rescue.
“These slow and large systems are definitely our nemesis,” Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said. “It’s the rainfall. The slow movement has been the story the entire time.”
Graham said Florence, moving at 6 mph, is still predicted to bring 20 to 30 inches of rain to parts of North and South Carolina, and as much as 10 inches far inland, including parts of Virginia. Graham said that 25 percent of deaths in tropical storms comes from inland flooding, and that flooding has barely started away from the coast.
The high rains may reach as far west as Kentucky, Graham said Friday afternoon.
“It won’t be until Sunday until we kick Florence out,” Graham said. “And then even after it’s gone, back behind it in its wake there’s going to be dangerous flooding.”
Graham said of Florence: “There’s nothing to steer it. It’s all about the steering currents, we don’t have any right now. It’s like a bubble with no wind, it just floats. You don’t want slow, but that’s what we have.”
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said the state was facing “an extremely dangerous situation, and it’s getting worse” as the hurricane continued its assault.
“Hurricane Florence is powerful, slow and relentless,” Cooper said at a briefing. “It’s an uninvited brute who doesn’t want to leave.”
Cooper highlighted in particular the plight of New Bern, a city that faced intense flooding overnight.
“The storm surge alone has overwhelmed the city of New Bern,” Cooper said. More 100 swift-water rescues were carried out there overnight, he said, “and we expect more.”
Other cities and counties were also facing intense rains and wind, which Cooper said would create challenges “over the next few days and weeks.” Among other things, Cooper said authorities expect to see significant flooding in multiple rivers across the state.
The storm has already had an impact on scores of residents, Cooper said. Half a million people lacked power Friday. About 20,000 people sought sanctuary in 157 shelters.
Florence is slowly weakening as it hugs the coast of southeastern North Carolina, its top winds down to 80 mph. But it has already dumped up 10 to 18 inches of rain from the Outer Banks to the southeast coast. Wrightsville Beach, where the storm made landfall at 7:15 a.m., has posted the highest total so far: 18.53 inches.