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Florence Not Done Yet: The ‘Worst yet to Come,’ Risks Include Flash Floods, Landslides, Tornadoes

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With at least 32 deaths linked to the flooding and high winds caused by Hurricane Florence and its aftermath, North Carolina remained in state of crisis Tuesday as officials tried to battle floodwaters that kept rising.

Wilmington, North Carolina, remained largely isolated by flooding, while more than half a million people were without power, CBS reported.

“Any direction you try coming into the city, from 20 to 40 miles out, roads are impassable,” Mayor Bill Saffo said, CNN reported. “Anyone trying to get in here — don’t try. You will be turned away. Highway Patrol won’t let you.”

“This a monumental disaster for our state,” said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper. “In many parts of North Carolina the danger is still immediate.”

Cooper said that due to the days of rain dumped on the state, the “worst flooding yet” is still to come.

Cooper’s words echoed those of Mayor Mitch Colvin of Fayetteville, North Carolina, who on Saturday predicted, “The worst is yet to come,” The Guardian reported.

Some parts of North Carolina received almost three feet of rain.

Although the Carolinas were drenched by rain from the storm, its passage through Virginia was marked by tornadoes. One person was reported killed in the state.

“Flooding is still going to be a concern into the weekend and into next week,” said Hal Austin, a National Weather Service meteorologist, according to CNBC.

Austin said more rain may fall on the Carolinas Tuesday and Wednesday.

“No more water, not even a drop, please,” he said.

Florence left the Carolinas and Virginia behind Tuesday as it moved north.

The storm was expected to drop six inches of rain on parts of New England and the mid-Atlantic on Tuesday, with flash flood watches posted across parts of New England and New York. Parts of New York State’s Erie Canal were closed in anticipation of flooding, NYUpstate reported.

The storm’s impacts may be felt other places as well.

“Not only are you going to see more impact across North Carolina … but we’re also anticipating you are about to see a lot of damage through West Virginia, all the way up to Ohio as the system exits out,” Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said Sunday, according to Fox News. (For more from the author of “Florence Not Done Yet: The ‘Worst yet to Come,’ Risks Include Flash Floods, Landslides, Tornadoes” please click HERE)

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North Carolina Police Chief Warns: ‘I See a Biblical Proportion Flood Event’

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With the first blows of Hurricane Florence being felt along the East Coast, some local officials have begun describing the massive storm in apocalyptic terms.

Though wind speeds have decreased since it began rotating deep in the Atlantic Ocean, experts say a storm surge followed by heavy rains from the slow-moving hurricane could spell disaster for residents and property along its path.

Now a Category 1 hurricane, wind gusts in Wilmington, North Carolina, topped 100 mph early Friday. That marks the city’s strongest recorded wind in 60 years.

In an ABC News interview, Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous predicted the fallout would be “epic” in scale.

“I see a biblical proportion flood event that’s going to occur,” he said. “I see the beach communities being inundated with water and destruction that will be pretty, pretty epic in nature.”

As NBC News reported, power was out for nearly 500,000 customers in the affected area.

While North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper confirmed no fatalities had been reported in connection with the storm, he cautioned that the state would continue dealing with dangerous conditions for some time.

“This is an uninvited brute that just won’t leave,” he said.

One North Carolina city had already received about 150 reports of locals in need of rescue as of Thursday night.

Despite the fact that New Bern had been under a mandatory evacuation order since Tuesday, officials tweeted that emergency rescue teams had assembled in an attempt to reach those trapped after staying behind.

According to one Craven County official, the risks associated with attempting to stick it out through the aftermath of the storm are numerous and severe.

“I would say that certain areas of New Bern are very desperate,” Amber Parker said. “There are people that can be trapped in water, in vehicles, on roofs. That’s just the situation for anyone.”

Though rescue teams had been assembled, several areas of town were inaccessible due to flooding as well as fallen trees and power lines.

“They just have to wait until the weather conditions permit them to make it here safely,” Parker said. “I don’t have the follow-up information on all of the calls.”

In some cases, the rescue operation relies on neighbor helping neighbor, she said.

“There are some that I know we have made it to and others where they’ve been rescued by other agencies or individuals — private citizens who have rescued some people.”

New Bern Mayor Dana Outlaw echoed the concerns of other local officials.

“It’s very unsafe,” she said. “I immediately spoke with the police chief and we decided we need a 24-hour curfew.” (For more from the author of “North Carolina Police Chief Warns: ‘I See a Biblical Proportion Flood Event’” please click HERE)

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Storm Evacuees Get Huge Offer From NASCAR Speedways

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Pieces of hurricane evacuee Melody Rawson’s South Carolina life are now spread out on a grassy field, a slab of concrete and a picnic table at a campground outside Atlanta Motor Speedway.

They include two dogs, a cockatoo in its cage, a couple of coolers with sandwich meat and the mangled remains of a tire that blew out at midnight as Rawson and her companions ferried it all to the relative safety of Georgia.

The speedway has opened its campgrounds to Southerners escaping Hurricane Florence. It’s one of many impromptu shelters that have sprung up across the region as a refuge for the evacuees.

Rawson was among the first few who arrived early Wednesday at the speedway south of Atlanta. Among her family members is her partner Lisa and her 17-year-old son who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.

“We’re thankful for this generosity of free services, and we hope to have something left when we get home,” Rawson told The Associated Press. “We live in a first-floor apartment in Myrtle Beach, so you can’t take the chance, you know?”

More than 10 million people across the region were under hurricane watches or warnings, and hundreds of thousands have been ordered to evacuate.

As of Tuesday, more than 1.7 million people in the Carolinas and Virginia were warned to flee. More than 300,000 people had already left the South Carolina coast, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said Wednesday.

Gas shortages and jammed freeways loomed for evacuees seeking safety in far-away shelters, campgrounds and hotels. In North Carolina, one in 10 gas stations in Wilmington and Raleigh-Durham had no gas by midday Wednesday.

Colin Richards, a U.S. Navy diver based on Virginia’s coast, said he and his family planned to head for Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Richards is from. He was among the military personnel leaving coastal Virginia and North Carolina ahead of the hurricane. The 28-year-old was mostly concerned for his daughter who is one month and two days old.

“It’s very simple,” he said Wednesday in Norfolk. “We don’t want to live without power with a newborn.”

In Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, Phoebe Tesh paused while loading her car to sip a glass of wine on the steps of the house where she and her husband rent an apartment.

Tesh said Wednesday that the couple had been making trips back and forth to carry valuables to her parents’ house on the mainland in Wilmington, where they planned to ride out the storm.

About a half-dozen campers had arrived early Wednesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, but racetrack officials expected many more once word got out that evacuees could camp there. Equipped with restrooms and showers, along with power, water, and sewers, the racetrack’s campgrounds can accommodate about 5,000 people.

Opening up the racetrack’s campgrounds is “just simply the thing to do,” Atlanta Motor Speedway President Ed Clark said Wednesday.

“It takes a little bit of that worry away when you leave home and don’t know where you’re headed to,” Clark added. “You can imagine the storm is coming, you call three campgrounds and they’re all full. Where do you go?”

The Georgia speedway has hosted storm evacuees before, along with pets and, in one case, three cages of chickens, Clark said. Last year, as Hurricane Irma threatened Florida, the speedway hosted at least 100 evacuees.

Bristol Motor Speedway, near the Tennessee-Virginia line, and Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina have also opened their campgrounds to people fleeing Hurricane Florence.

Georgia state parks are also welcoming evacuees from Florence and is offering some camping at no charge for them. (For more from the author of “Storm Evacuees Get Huge Offer From NASCAR Speedways” please click HERE)

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A Veteran Reporter Who Covered Hurricane Katrina Has a Grim Warning for Anyone in Hurricane Florence’s Path Who Doesn’t Evacuate

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A veteran reporter who covered Hurricane Katrina in 2005 gave a dark warning on Tuesday to people refusing to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Florence: “Write your Social Security number on your arm, so officials can identify your body.”

Mark Schleifstein has been reporting on hurricanes and severe weather for the New Orleans newspaper The Times-Picayune since 1984, and he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Category 5 Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Florence is expected to start pounding the US around North Carolina’s border with South Carolina as early as Thursday night, according to the National Hurricane Center’s latest predictions. Evacuations have been ordered in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Officials say the biggest danger is from storm surges and heavy rain, which the NHC says could cause floodwaters as high as 13 feet in some areas.

. . .

Schleifstein’s advice on Tuesday to those residents who won’t leave their homes is informed by his articles on Katrina. He covered the more than 1,800 deaths from the hurricane, many of which were due to flooding. (Read more from “A Veteran Reporter Who Covered Hurricane Katrina Has a Grim Warning for Anyone in Hurricane Florence’s Path Who Doesn’t Evacuate” HERE)

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