Hurricane Florence's winds slap Carolina coast, flooding threat looms

Record ID: 1356048

  • Title: Hurricane Florence's winds slap Carolina coast, flooding threat looms
  • Date: 13th September 2018
  • Summary: NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 13, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LOCAL RESIDENT, JOSH HAYES, FISHING OFF THE DOCK AT MARINA IN WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOSH HAYES, WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH RESIDENT, SAYING: "Flooding. Yeah. I mean wind's going to be wind, water's more what I'm worried about." (SOUNDBITE) (English) REPORTER ASKING: "Have
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2018 19:53
  • Keywords: Hurricane Florence rains flooding National Hurricane Center
  • Location: NEW HANOVER COUNTY AND WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES
  • City: NEW HANOVER COUNTY AND WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Wind/Hurricane/Typhoons/Tornadoes
  • Reuters ID: LVA0018XGPGLJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hurricane Florence's winds began whipping coastal North Carolina on Thursday (September 13) as the slow-moving tempest began to unleash fierce rains that forecasters warned would cause catastrophic flooding across a wide swath of the U.S. southeast.
    The center of Florence is expected to hit North Carolina's southern coast Friday, then drift southwest before moving inland on Saturday, enough time to drop as much as 40 inches (1 meter) of rain in places, according to the National Hurricane Center.
    An estimated 10 million people live in the storm's path, according to the U.S. Weather Prediction Center, and coastal businesses and homes were boarded up in anticipation. More than 1 million people had been ordered to evacuate the coasts of the Carolinas and Virginia and thousands moved to emergency shelters, officials said.
    Florence's maximum sustained winds were clocked on Thursday at 105 miles per hour (165 kph) after it was downgraded to a Category 2 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the NHC.
    The hurricane center also said the threat of tornadoes was increasing as the storm neared shore.
    In Wrightsville Beach, a town in New Hanover County, some residents enjoyed a few final hours of normalcy with fishing.
    And in Wilmington, New Hanover County Commissioner Jonathan Barfield, Jr. said most of the five shelters they opened were at full capacity.
    Millions of people are expected to lose power and it could take weeks to resolve the outages.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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