4 dead as Florence drenches Carolinas
WILMINGTON, N.C. — Blowing ashore with howling 90 mph (155 kph) winds, Florence splintered buildings, trapped hundreds of people and swamped entire communities along the Carolina coast Friday in what could be just the opening act in a watery, two-part, slow-motion disaster.
At least four people according to poweroutage. were killed. A mother and us, which tracks the U.S. baby died when a tree fell on electrical grid. a house, according to a tweet North Carolina Gov. from Wilmington police. Roy Cooper called Florence Also, a 77-year-old man an "uninvited brute" that was apparently knocked could wipe out entire down by the wind and died communities as it grinds after going out to check on across the state. "This storm his hunting dogs, Lenoir is deadly and we know we County authorities said, and are days away from an the governor's office said a ending," man was electrocuted while Parts of North Carolina trying to connect extension had seen storm surges — the cords in the rain. bulge of seawater pushed
Forecasters warned that ashore by the hurricane drenching rains of 1 to 3½ — as high as 10 feet (3 feet (30 centimeters to 1 meters), he said. meter) as the hurricaneturned-tropical After reaching a storm crawls terrifying Category 4 peak westward across North and South Carolina could trigger epic flooding well inland over the next few days.
As 400-mile-wide (645-kilometer-wide) Florence pounded away at the coast with torrential downpours and surging seas, rescue crews used boats to reach more than 360 people besieged by rising waters in New Bern, while many of their neighbors awaited help. More than 60 people had to be rescued in another town as a cinderblock motel collapsed at the height of the storm's fury.
Florence flattened trees, crumbled roads and the assault wasn't anywhere close to being over, with the siege in the Carolinas expected to last all weekend. The storm knocked out power to more than 890,000 homes and businesses, of 140 mph (225 kph) earlier in the week, Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at 7:15 a.m. at Wrightsville Beach, a few miles (kilometers) east of Wilmington and not far from the South Carolina line. It came ashore along a mostly boarded-up, emptied-out stretch of coastline.
By Friday evening, Florence was downgraded to a tropical storm, its winds weakened to 70 mph (112 kph) as it moved forward at 3 mph (6 kph) about 15 miles (25 kilometers) north of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
But it was clear that this was really about the water, not the wind. Several places already had more than 16 inches (40 centimeters) of rain, and Oriental, North Carolina got more than 20 inches (50 centimeters) in just a few hours.