ZCZC
BFF-08
US-WEATHER-ENVIRONMENT-HURRICANE
US east coast braces for ‘once in a lifetime’ hurricane
WILMINGTON, United States, Sept 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The US east coast
girded for a battering from Hurricane Florence Thursday night as the monster
storm’s outer edge began lashing the Carolinas with heavy wind and rain,
which forecasters warned could trigger life-threatening floods.
Hurricane-force winds began whipping North Carolina, as federal emergency
management officials warned that the Category 2 hurricane — while weakening
slightly — remains a “very dangerous storm” capable of wreaking havoc along
a wide swathe of the coast.
“Just because the wind speed came down, the intensity of this storm came
down to a Cat 2, please do not let your guard down,” said Brock Long, the
administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Warning of looming storm surges of nine to 12 feet (2.7-3.6 meters), he
urged residents to take the storm seriously no matter the category, saying
“this is all about the water anyway.”
Florence had been downgraded to a Category 2 storm on the five-level
Saffir-Simpson wind scale but it is still packing hurricane-force winds of
100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC)
said.
With winds picking up along the coastline early Thursday, federal and state
officials had issued final appeals to residents to get out of the path of the
“once in a lifetime” weather system.
“This storm will bring destruction,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper
said. “Catastrophic effects will be felt.”
Some minor flooding was reported on the Outer Banks — barrier islands off
the coast of North Carolina — and in some seaside coastal towns, as more
than 110,000 power outages were reported statewide.
In Wilmington, North Carolina, a steady rain began to fall as gusts of
winds intensified, causing trees to sway and stoplights to flicker.
Avair Vereen, 39, took her seven children to a shelter in Conway High
School near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
“We live in a mobile home so we were just like ‘No way,'” she said. “If we
lose the house, oh well, we can get housing.
“But we can’t replace us so we decided to come here.”
– Monster storm surge expected –
At 8:00 pm (0000 GMT), Florence was over the Atlantic Ocean about 85 miles
(135 kilometers) east-southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, and moving
northwest at five miles per hour, the NHC said.
Steve Goldstein of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said
Florence’s forward motion had slowed and it was not expected to make landfall
in the Carolinas until “some time Friday afternoon, Friday evening or
Saturday morning.”
He said hurricane-force winds extend outward 80 miles from the center of
the storm and tropical storm-force winds extend nearly 200 miles out.
Some areas could receive as much as 40 inches (one meter) of rain,
forecasters said.
“This rainfall will produce catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged
significant river flooding,” the NHC said.
A tornado watch was also in effect for parts of North Carolina.
FEMA’s Long warned the danger was not only along the coast: “Inland
flooding kills a lot of people, unfortunately, and that’s what we’re about to
see,” he said.
About 1.7 million people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia are
under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders and millions of others live in
areas likely to be affected by what officials called a “once in a lifetime”
storm.
Myrtle Beach, a South Carolina beach resort, was virtually deserted with
empty streets, boarded up storefronts and very little traffic.
A state of emergency has been declared in five coastal states — North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia.
Duke Energy, a power company in the Carolinas, estimated that one million
to three million customers could lose electricity because of the storm and
that it could take weeks to restore.
– ‘Catastrophic effects’ –
Not everybody was heeding orders to evacuate, however.
Antonio Ramirez, a construction worker from El Salvador living in Leland,
North Carolina, said he planned to ride out the worst of the weather with his
dog Canelo.
“The shelters are not taking dogs,” Ramirez said. “I’m not leaving him
here.
In Wilmington, residents who had decided not to evacuate were lining up to
get ice from a vending machine — $2 for a 16-pound (7.2-kilo) bag.
“I have no generator,” said Petra Langston, a nurse. “I learned from the
past to keep the ice in the washing machine.”
Perched on the porch of his home, carpenter Tony Albright was calmly
awaiting Florence’s arrival, beer in hand.
“I built this house myself, so I’m not worried at all, I know it’s solid,”
he said. “I charged the batteries of my electronic devices, I have beers and
video games.”
“The only thing missing in there is a hot lady.”
BSS/AFP/MRI/0833 HRS