Storm could be worst to hit US in 60 years
MORE THAN A MILLION TOLD TO EVACUATE AS FLORENCE’S SIZE IS ‘STAGGERING’
Hurricane Florence could inflict the hardest hurricane punch North Carolina has seen in more than 60 years, with rain and wind of more than 209 km/h.
Hurricane Florence’s size is “staggering,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham warned. “We could cover several states easily with the cloud cover alone,” Graham said. “This is not just a coastal event.”
There was little change in Florence’s track during the 11am forecast from the National Hurricane Center. It remains a Category 4 storm and is expected to intensify to near Category 5 status as it slows over very warm ocean water near North and South Carolina.
North Carolina has been hit by only one other Category 4 storm since reliable record keeping began in the 1850s. That was Hurricane Hazel in 1954.
More than a million coastal residents have been ordered to leave their homes ahead of the storm’s projected arrival tomorrow, with emergencies already declared in the states of North and South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. The US capital also declared a state of emergency.
Residents boarded up their homes and stripped grocery stores bare of food, water and supplies.
The South Carolina Highway Patrol sent “flush cars” eastbound on major highways to clear traffic before reversing lanes on major roadways to speed the evacuation. “This is still a very dangerous storm. We must take it very seriously,” South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said.
With mandatory evacuations already issued for parts of three East Coast states, millions of Americans are preparing for what could become one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to hit the Eastern Seaboard in decades.
Carrying winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour as a Category 4 storm, Hurricane Florence is expected to strengthen and become a Category 5 storm yesterday. It’s then forecast to close in on North or South Carolina on Thursday, hitting a stretch of coastline that’s vulnerable to rising sea levels due to climate change.
“Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE!” President Donald Trump tweeted Monday evening.
South Carolina’s governor ordered the state’s entire coastline to be evacuated starting at noon yesterday and predicted that one million people would flee. And Virginia’s governor ordered a mandatory evacuation for some residents of lowlying coastal areas, while some coastal counties in North Carolina have done the same.
The storm’s first effects were already apparent on barrier islands as dangerous rip currents hit beaches and seawater flowed over a state highway.
For many people, the challenge could be finding a safe refuge: If Florence slows to a crawl just off the coast, it could bring torrential rains to the Appalachian Mountains and as far away as West Virginia, causing flash floods, mudslides and other dangerous conditions.
Forecast to linger
The storm’s potential path also includes half a dozen nuclear power plants, pits holding coal-ash and other industrial waste, and numerous hog farms that store animal waste in massive open-air lagoons.
Airlines, including American and Southwest, have started letting passengers change travel plans that take them into the hurricane’s possible path.
National Hurricane Centre Director Ken Graham warned that Florence was forecast to linger over the Carolinas once it reaches shore. People living well inland should prepare to lose power and endure flooding and other hazards, he warned.
“It’s not just the coast,” Graham said. “When you stall a system like this and it moves real slow, some of that rainfall can extend well away from the centre.”
A warm ocean is the fuel that powers hurricanes, and Florence will be moving over waters where temperatures are peaking near 30 degrees Celsius, hurricane specialist Eric Blake wrote. And with little wind shear to pull the storm apart, Florence’s hurricane wind field was expected to expand over the coming days.