Hurricane Florence - US East Coast Faces 'Life-Threatening Floods' as Three States Order Mandatory Evacuations
Families told they must leave parts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia
Independent UK, 11 Sep 2018.
Hurricane Florence, currently a Category 4 storm, is bearing down on the US eastern seaboard forcing authorities to issue mandatory evacuation orders amid fears of “life-threatening” floods and storm surges.
Trackers fear Florence’s 140mph winds may strengthen further to Category 5 on Tuesday, as the Carolinas and Virginia brace for predicted landfall on Thursday. Some 1 million people have been told to evacuate from South Carolina's entire coastline.
The storm is the strongest of several weather systems the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) is monitoring as hurricane season reaches its peak.
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Hurricane Florence is a "beast" of a storm, according to an American scientific pilot who has flown through it a number of times on monitoring missions.
Florence is "on par with" the destructive hurricanes Irma and Maria that caused widespread damage last year, and getting "stronger and stronger by the minute", said Joe Kibbey of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He added in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper: "Our first flight Saturday, Florence was just under hurricane strength, and then Sunday it was just over hurricane strength, and today [Monday] it was a Category 4 storm.
"It's what they call rapid intensification, so the storm has really got its act together and is just a heck of a storm out there."
Nasa has released a stunning satellite image of the three hurricanes currently swirling over the Atlantic.
Florence, Isaac and Helene can be seen clearly in the image acquired by the agency's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite aboard the Suomi satellite.
The photo shows Florida in the top left, with Cuba largely obscured by cloud and the northern part of Latin America including Brazil visible in the lower left. Spain and the Sahara desert can be seen on the right.
A handout photo made available by Nasa on 11 September, 2018 (EPA)
In this 15 October, 1954 file photo, high tides, whipped in by Hurricane Hazel, shatter boats and buildings in Swansboro, North Carolina, as the storm lashes the Atlantic seaboard. The last time the midsection of the East Coast stared down a hurricane like Florence, Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House and Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were newlyweds. Florence could inflict the hardest hurricane punch the Carolinas have seen in more than 60 years, with rain and wind of more than 140mph (AP)
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Nearly a quarter of a million people have been ordered to evacuate parts of Virginia.
Governor Ralph Northam issued an evacuation order for about 245,000 residents in flood-prone coastal areas beginning at 8am local time.
The National Hurricane Centre (NHS) has warned Florence will drop "staggering" amounts of rain.
NHC director Ken Graham warned the deluge may extend hundreds of miles inland and cause flash flooding across the mid-Atlantic region.
Forecasts expect 10 to 15 inches (25 to 38 cm) of rain in the hardest-hit areas, possibly more if the storm stalls over land, as expected, Mr Graham said.
Supplies are flying off grocery shop shelves as South Carolina prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Florence, local media reports.
Water in particular was in short supply, WCSC reported, while queues for petrol stretched "out to the streets", a witness said.
Charleston resident Josh Foster told the site. "It's preventing people from driving and continuing about their day."
Via the Associated Press news agency, a few details about what may be at stake when Florence strikes:
The storm's potential path 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.
The National Hurricane Centre's latest prediction of Florence's path. The storm is expected to hit on Thursday
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The US National Hurricane Centre has said "life-threatening freshwater flooding" is likely once Florence makes landfall, due to an "exceptionally heavy rainfall event".
The centre said it expected to issue a storm surge warning for the Carolinas and Virginia by Tuesday morning as a "life-threatening" surge was also likely along parts of the coastlines of those states.
Millions of people are preparing for what could be the most devastating storm to hit the US eastern seaboard in decades.
Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in parts of South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
It is currently a Category 4 storm with winds of 140mph, though observers fear it could strengthen to Category 5 on Tuesday.
Here's another look at the breathtaking images of Hurricane Florence captured by an astronaut on board the International Space Station Monday.
Those declarations open up funding to be used for disaster response, and to facilitate quicker responses.
The National Hurricane Centre has noted that there is a significant amount of uncertainty to its forecasts. The storm could change direction fairly easily, and could move quicker or slower than current predictions suggest, they say.
Hurricane Florence has reached wind speeds to classify it as a category 4 hurricane, and it has been predicted that the storm will possibly strengthen into a category 5 storm by the time it hits the US.
Here is an illustration of the impact of various strengths of winds could have on a home.
Here are the states that have so far declared states of emergency in anticipation of Hurricane Florence:
- Maryland
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Virginia
Other states, like West Virginia, are watching the storm closely, and making preparations in some instances to ensure residents remain as safe as possible.
The sheer size of Hurricane Florence has a completely inland state preparing for the worst.
In West Virginia — an inland, mountainous state with no coastal borders — Governor Jim Justice has ordered the state's Department of Homeland Security and National Guard to be prepared for potential disaster circumstances.
Locals in the path of Hurricane Florence have some interesting rituals to keep the worst of the storm from impacting their homes, and have set up a Facebook event to shoot guns at the storm in an attempt to scare it away.
While created in jest, the post proposes a party with umbrellas, umbrella guns, and beer to try and scare Florence off.
The host of the event does, however, note that discharging a gun into the air is a horrible idea — and that doing so could lead to unintentional deaths.
Over a foot of rain can be expected in some of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Florence, which the National Hurricane Centre says may bring bouts of prolonged rain that could lead to deadly flooding.
The heaviest rains will be seen in North Carolina and into Virginia, according to weather forecasts, but rain effects from the storm may be seen as far north as New Jersey. Light effects may be seen in New York City, too.
Florence has sustained winds of over 140 mph and before it dies the storm may stall over the Carolinas, leading to “exceptionally heavy” and sustained rains, experts said.
The storm’s first effects were already apparent on barrier islands as dangerous rip currents hit beaches and seawater flowed over a state highway.
States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
State governors said they would open shelters for displaced residents
Behind Florence in the Atlantic are at least two other storm systems, Hurricane Isaac and Hurricane Helene. In the Pacific, the state of Hawaii is expecting to be hit by its second hurricane of the season if Hurricane Olivia makes its way to the islands as predicted. Isaac has weakened in recent hours, the NHC said.