Deadly Hurricane Florence trudges inland in Carolinas with ‘epic’ rain, killing five
WILMINGTON(North
Carolina): Tropical Storm Florence trudged inland on Saturday, flooding rivers and towns, toppling trees and cutting power to nearly a million homes and businesses as it dumped huge amounts of rain on North and South Carolina, where five people have died.
Florence diminished from hurricane strength as it came ashore on Friday, but forecasters said the 350-mile-wide storm’s (560 km) slow progress across the two states could leave much of the region under water in the coming days.
The National Hurricane Centre said the storm would dump as much as 30 to 40 inches (76-102 cm) of rain on the southeastern coast of North Carolina and part of northeastern South Carolina, as well as up to 10 inches (25 cm) in southwestern Virginia.
“This storm is relentless and excruciating,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told CNN late on Friday. “There is probably not a county or a person that will not be affected in some way by this very massive and violent storm.”
At 8am EDT (1200 GMT), the hurricane centre said Florence had maximum sustained winds near 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour) and continued to produce catastrophic flooding in the Carolinas. It said it was located about 35 miles (55 km) west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and forecasters predicted a slow westward march.
“Gradual weakening is forecast while Florence moves farther inland during the next couple of days, and it is expected to weaken to a tropical depression” by Saturday night, the centre said in a bulletin.
On Thursday, Florence was a Category 3 hurricane on the fivestep Saffir-Simpson scale with 120-mph winds (193 km).
Downgraded to Category 1
It was downgraded to Category 1 before coming ashore on Friday near Wrightsville Beach close to Wilmington, North Carolina.
The hurricane centre downgraded Florence to a tropical storm later in the day. About 10 million people could be affected by the storm. A mother and baby were killed when a tree fell on their home in Wilmington. The child’s injured father was hospitalised.
In Pender County, a woman died of a heart attack. Paramedics trying to reach her were blocked by debris. Two people died in Lenoir County. A 78-year-old man was electrocuted attempting to connect extension cords while another man died when he was blown down by high winds while checking on his hunting dogs, a county spokesman said.
In New Bern, at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers in North Carolina, the storm surge overwhelmed the town of 30,000.
Officials in New Bern, which dates to the early 18th century, said more than 100 people were rescued from floods and the downtown are was under water by Friday afternoon.
A spokesman for the town said between 60 and 75 people were awaiting rescue on Saturday morning. New Bern’s mayor told CNN that 4,200 homes were damaged in the city.