Hurricane Florence will likely be the ‘storm of a lifetime’ after a slight change in path means potential rain and storm surges will be worse than first predicted with up to four feet of rain pummeling portions of the Carolina coast.
Florence remained a dangerous Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday morning after slowing slightly to 130mph overnight and it is predicted to stall even more before scraping down the US east coast and moving inland before the weekend.
Forecasters said hurricane-force winds will reach the Carolina coasts late Thursday or early Friday as more than 1.7 million people were warned to evacuate and get out of the way of the ‘life-threatening’ storm’s path.
Rainfall predictions are expected to be higher because of the weakening wind speeds and parts of North Carolina are bracing for more than 40 inches of rain, which is similar to the catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston last year.
At least 25 million residents in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia are at risk from Hurricane Florence, which has a wingspan the size of Michigan.
The storm has sparked mass evacuations with as many as 1.7 million people warned to seek shelter from the catastrophic storm, while five million are under a direct hurricane warning.
‘This will likely be the storm of a lifetime for portions of the Carolina coast,’ the National Weather Service said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the biggest danger was the storm surge – a wall of water from the sea which could reach 13 feet high.
Hurricane Florence will likely be the ‘storm of a lifetime’ after a slight change in path means potential rain and storm surges will be worse than first predicted with up to four feet of rain pummeling portions of the Carolina coast
‘Storm surge has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people,’ FEMA Administrator Brock Long told CNN. ‘It also has the highest potential to cause the most destruction.’
FEMA said Florence is the strongest storm to hit the Carolinas and Virginia region ‘in decades’.
‘This storm is going to knock out power days into weeks. It’s going to destroy infrastructure. It’s going to destroy homes,’ Jeff Byard, an official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said.
‘We cannot stress the importance to our citizens that are in evacuations to heed the local and state warnings. This storm will and has the potential to cause loss of life, and we cannot emphasize the importance to take action now.’
On Tuesday, motorists streamed inland on highways converted to one-way routes and supermarket shelves were stripped bare as more than 1 million people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia were ordered to flee their homes as the hurricane churns across the Atlantic Ocean towards the coast.
At 5am on Wednesday, the storm was centered 575 miles southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina and moving at 17 mph.
Forecasters and politicians pleaded with the public to take the warnings seriously and minced no words in describing the threat for what could become one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to hit the Eastern Seaboard in decades.
President Donald Trump has declared states of emergency for North and South Carolina and Virginia, saying the US government is ‘absolutely, totally prepared’ for Florence.
Florence remained a dangerous Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday morning and is predicted to stall before scraping down the US east coast and moving inland before the weekend. Photo courtesy of NBC
‘This storm is a monster. It’s big and it’s vicious. It is an extremely, dangerous, life-threatening, historic hurricane,’ said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
‘The waves and the wind this storm may bring is nothing like you’ve ever seen. Even if you’ve ridden out storms before, this one is different. Don’t bet your life on riding out a monster.’
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who issued a mandatory medical evacuation of 177 hospitals and medical facilities in his state said: ‘We know the evacuation order I’m issuing will be inconvenient.
‘But we’re not going to gamble with the lives of the people of South Carolina. Not one.’
Hog farmers along the East Coast were scrambling to drain their waste pools ahead of the storm. Hog farms each have open-air ‘lagoons’ filled with manure – which turn bright pink due to the bacteria festering in the lagoons.
If the rivers break their banks, or lagoons overflow, affecting local waterways, which could damage to local environment and put drinking water sources and public health at risk.
Flooding could also lead to the deaths of thousands of animals if they cannot be evacuated in time.
Marlowe Vaughan of Ivy Spring Creek Farm in Goldsboro, has spent most of day pumping liquid waste from her lagoons to make more room for incoming rainfall.
‘We try to pump down as much as we can, but after that, it’s kind of in God’s hands. We’re kind of at the mercy of the storm.’
Dorothy Pope, 78, and her sister Clydie Gardner, 71, settle in to the home they share in Princeville, N.C., after a normal grocery run on Tuesday. They are keeping an eye on the storm but have no plans to leave unless they are threatened by flooding
A store’s bread shelves are bare as people stock up on food in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Tuesday ahead of Florence
The bread aisle at Walmart is empty two days before Hurricane Florence is expected to strike Wilmington, North Carolina
More than 1.5 million people were ordered to evacuate their homes in preparation. Vehicles lined up in heavy traffic (above) in Wallace, North Carolina on Tuesday
Rob Quinn boards up Lagerheads Tavern in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina after 300,000 people were ordered to evacuate the state’s coastal areas
Sailors cast off mooring lines to the Command hospital ship USNS Comfort as the ship evacuates Naval Station Norfolk in preparation for Hurricane Florence in Norfolk, Virginia
In anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Florence, sailors of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 28 prepare MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters to evacuate Naval Station Norfolk to ensure personnel safety and prevent damage to Navy assets on September 11
Greg Cook carries belongings to a van as he evacuates days before the arrival of Hurricane Florence at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina on September 11
Employees of Redix board up the front windows of the store in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 11
People evacuate ahead of the forecasted landfall of Hurricane Florence as they seek shelter at Emma B. Trask Middle School in Wilmington, North Carolina
At least 25 million residents on the East Coast are at risk from Hurricane Florence which is expected to deliver a ‘direct hit’ this week
Chuck Ledford (L), watches Looney-Tunes with his daughter Misty as they evacuate ahead of the forecasted landfall of Hurricane Florence as they seek shelter at Emma B. Trask Middle School in Wilmington,
A Walmart in Mt. Pleasant, S.C, is closed, and barricaded, after Gov. Henry McMaster ordered a mandatory evacuation
Duke Energy spokesman Ryan Mosier said operators would begin shutting down nuclear plants at least two hours before hurricane-force winds arrive.
Despite the evacuation order, South Carolina Department of Corrections decided not to remove inmates at the Ridgeland Correctional Institution.
SCDC spokesman Dexter Lee said: ‘In the past, it’s been safer to leave them there’.
Several interstates will close from Wednesday as will state offices – including the University of South Carolina – and schools across 26 counties in the eastern part of the state. Some schools will be used as evacuation shelters officials said Monday.
‘We don’t want the school children in harm’s way,’ McMaster told The State. We know it’s going to hit somewhere where it’s going to have a dramatic impact on South Carolina. We’re going to get a whole lot of water that we haven’t seen in some time.’
McMaster previously issued a mandatory medical evacuation of 177 hospitals and medical facilities, including nursing homes, in the eight coastal counties.
North and South Carolina and Virginia have all ordered mass evacuations along the coast after declaring states of emergency.
Virginia issued a mandatory evacuation order for about 245,000 residents in flood-prone coastal areas beginning at 8am.
At least 250,000 more people were due to be evacuated from the northern Outer Banks in North Carolina on Tuesday after more than 50,000 people were ordered on Monday to leave Hatteras and Ocracoke, the southernmost of the state’s barrier islands.
Getting out of harm’s way could prove difficult and officials are already predicting the financial toll could reach $170 billion, according to CoreLogic.
Sandbags sit in doorways as water floods outside buildings in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia on September 11
People cross the street as water floods outside buildings in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia on September 11, where more than a million people were under evacuation orders in the eastern United States Tuesday
Florence is so wide that a life-threatening storm surge was being pushed 300 miles ahead of its eye, and so wet that a swath of states from South Carolina to Ohio and Pennsylvania could get deluged.
People across the region rushed to buy bottled water and other supplies, board up their homes or get out of town.
A line of heavy traffic moved away from the coast on Interstate 40, the main route between the port city of Wilmington and inland Raleigh.
Between the two cities, about two hours apart, the traffic flowed smoothly in places and became gridlocked in others because of fender-benders.
Only a trickle of vehicles was going in the opposite direction, including pickup trucks carrying plywood and other building materials. Service stations started running out of gas as far west as Raleigh, with bright yellow bags, signs or rags placed over the pumps to show they were out of order.
Florence could hit the Carolinas harder than any hurricane since Hazel packed 130 mph winds in 1954. That Category 4 storm destroyed 15,000 buildings and 19 people in North Carolina. In the six decades since then, many thousands of people have moved to the coast.
A gas station in Mt. Pleasant S.C. alerts motorist that it is out of gas due to the heavy demand caused by Hurricane Florence
Tarek Elshik, left, fills gas cans to fuel a generator to refrigerate insulin for his 10-year-old daughter Yasmeen Elshik’s Type 1 diabetes treatment in case power goes out during Hurricane Florence
Food Lion employee Greg Partin helps a customer to her car on Monday, Sept. 10, 2018 at the Woodcroft shopping center in Durham, N.C
Wood boards and cardboard boxes block the entrance to a Walmart store in Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on September 11
A man uses a drill to install storm shutters on a home in Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on September 11
The storm’s first effects were already apparent on barrier islands as dangerous rip currents hit beaches and seawater flowed over a state highway – the harbinger of a storm surge that could wipe out dunes and submerge entire communities.
Authorities warned of life-threatening coastal storm surges and the potential for Florence to unleash prolonged torrential rains and widespread flooding, especially if it lingers inland for several days.
National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham warned of ‘staggering’ amounts of rainfall that may extend hundreds of miles inland and cause flash flooding across the mid-Atlantic region.
‘This one really scares me,’ Graham said.
The US military said it was sending an advance team to Raleigh, North Carolina, to coordinate with federal and state partners. The US Navy also ordered 30 warships out to sea from their port at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.
Airlines, including American, Southwest, Delta and JetBlue, have begun letting affected passengers change travel plans without the usual fees.
American and Southwest Airlines were among the carriers canceling flights to and from the hurricane zone starting Wednesday. Charleston International Airport in South Carolina tweeted that it expected to close runways by midnight Wednesday.
Amtrak trains are also being canceled or face schedule modifications from Wednesday to Sunday. The company is also waiving charges for reservation changes.
Allison Violette, a resident of Fayetteville, North Carolina, told NBC that she and her husband were moving all their belongings to the second floor of their home in preparation for the hurricane.
She said they had learned their lesson after Hurricane Matthew flooded the house in 2016.
‘It’s devastating to walk into your house and have seen it flooded, and to lose everything. And to think that can happen again, I just don’t, I just don’t want to have that. And so anything I can save that’s meaningful for us, I want to save it,’ she said.
‘I don’t know if we would want to do that again, and experience it. It’s just life-changing,’ said her husband Cal Violette.
Russell Meadows, left, helps neighbor Rob Muller board up his home ahead of Hurricane Florence in Morehead City, N.C
Larry Lynch selects a can of Armour Vienna Bites while grocery shopping in preparation for Hurricane Florence on Tuesday
Irene McNeil selects canned vegetables while grocery shopping in preparation for Hurricane Florence