Hurricane Florence Hits NC/SC Coast Today

[Mystic Wanderer]

Update:

At least 7 dead as flood waters continue to rise.

North Carolina Governor says Florence is not over, warns of 'significant flooding' to come originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents to remain vigilant and aware as some of the most detrimental impacts of Florence, which is now a tropical storm, are yet to come.

"We just don't want people to think this thing is over because it's not," Cooper said Saturday of Florence, which made landfall near Wrightsville Beach on Friday morning.

"We're going to see areas of flooding that have not flooded before," he said, adding "I have a real concern about that."
Heavy rain is expected to continue in North and South Carolina through the weekend and over the next few days. That will bring additional water to the already-soaked states as well as additional threats like possible landslides in the more mountainous inland parts and electrocution threats with downed power lines.

Cooper said the storm, which is slow-moving and hovering over the Carolinas, "will eventually leave our state," but he called on residents to be resilient until then.

"This one is sure testing us, but now is the time for us to persevere. I have never known North Carolinians to quit in the face of a challenge, and we're not about to start," Cooper said.


The rain and flooding expected Saturday could double the 10 to 20 inches that have fallen so far. Neighboring South Carolina was bracing overnight for the brutal wallop of widespread flash flooding, mad, whipping wind and relentless rainfall that crept across the border into the eastern half of the state before dawn.

The first brunt of the storm
Florence, which weakened from a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall early Friday morning to a tropical storm, is expected by Saturday evening to be downgraded to a tropical depression -- but the torrential rain shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.

Seven people were reported dead in the storm, including a mother and her baby killed in Wilmington, North Carolina, by a falling tree. Officials in Carteret County, North Carolina, announced on Saturday morning that two people had died on Harkers Island.
There are still more than 990,000 people without power in North and South Carolina combined early Saturday.

Jeff Byard, the FEMA associate administrator for response and recovery, warned Saturday that the danger is not over.
"There is a lot of rain to come. There's a lot of rain that's following," Byard said at a news conference Saturday morning.
"A lot of rain's going to fall. It's gotta go somewhere, and we want to be prepared to respond as quickly as possible," he said.

NOAA representative Steve Goldstein said the storm will produce “catastrophic flooding” for North Carolina and South Carolina in the coming days.
The White House announced Saturday that President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, which makes federal funding available for temporary housing and home repairs among other forms of assistance.

Read the full article:  North Carolina Governor says Florence is not over, warns of 'significant flooding' to come