Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Hurricane Florence Tears Buildings Apart in Carolinas
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 7 years ago on
September 14, 2018

Share

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Hurricane Florence lumbered ashore in North Carolina with howling 90 mph winds and terrifying storm surge early Friday, ripping apart buildings and knocking out power to a half-million homes and businesses as it settled in for what could be a long and extraordinarily destructive drenching.

“WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU. You may need to move up to the second story, or to your attic, but WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU.”the city of New Bern via Twitter
More than 60 people had to be pulled from a collapsing motel at the height of the storm. Hundreds more had to be rescued elsewhere from rising waters, and others could only hold out hope someone would come for them.
“WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU,” the city of New Bern tweeted around 2 a.m. “You may need to move up to the second story, or to your attic, but WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU.”
More ominously, forecasters said the onslaught on the coast would last for hours and hours because Florence had come almost to a dead halt at just 3 mph as of midday.
There were no immediate reports of any deaths.
Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at 7:15 a.m. at Wrightsville Beach, a few miles east of Wilmington, not far from the South Carolina line, coming ashore along a mostly boarded-up, emptied-out stretch of coastline.

Rain Considered a Bigger Threat Than Its Winds

Its storm surge and the prospect of 1 to 3½ feet of rain were considered a bigger threat than its winds, which dropped off from an alarming 140 mph — Category 4 — earlier in the week. Forecasters said catastrophic freshwater flooding is expected well inland over the next few days as Florence crawls westward across the Carolinas all weekend.
The area is expected to get about as much rain in three days as Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd dropped in two weeks in 1999.
Preparing for the worst, about 9,700 National Guard troops and civilians were deployed with high-water vehicles, helicopters and boats that could be used to pluck people from the floodwaters.
Florence was seen as a major test for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was heavily criticized as slow and unprepared last year for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where the storm was blamed for nearly 3,000 deaths in the desperate aftermath.
The National Hurricane Center said Florence will eventually make a right hook to the northeast over the southern Appalachians, moving into the mid-Atlantic states and New England as a tropical depression by the middle of next week.

Risk of Environmental Havoc

For people living inland in the Carolinas, the moment of maximum peril from flash flooding could arrive days later, because it takes time for rainwater to drain into rivers and for those streams to crest. Authorities warned, too, of the threat of mudslides and the risk of environmental havoc from floodwaters washing over industrial waste sites and hog farms.
On Friday, coastal streets in the Carolinas flowed with frothy ocean water, pieces of torn-apart buildings flew through the air, and at least 525,000 homes and businesses were without power, nearly all of them in North Carolina.
The few cars out on a main street in Wilmington had to swerve to avoid fallen trees, metal debris and power lines. Traffic lights out of order because of power failures swayed in the gusty wind. Roof shingles were peeled off a hotel.
At 11 a.m., the center of Florence was about 20 miles southwest of Wilmington, its winds down to 80 mph, according to the hurricane center. Hurricane-force winds extended 80 miles from its center, and tropical-storm-force winds reached out 195 miles.

Photo of Hurricane Florence
High winds and storm surge from Hurricane Florence hits Swansboro N.C.,Friday, Sept. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Tom Copeland)

A Wind Gust Clocked at 105 Mph

The Wilmington airport had a wind gust clocked at 105 mph, the highest since Hurricane Helene in 1958, the weather service said.

“Very eerie, the wind howling, the rain blowing sideways, debris flying.” — Sandie Orsa of Wilmington
Sheets of rain splattered against windows of a hotel before daybreak in Wilmington, where Sandie Orsa of Wilmington sat in a lobby lit by emergency lights after the electricity went out.
“Very eerie, the wind howling, the rain blowing sideways, debris flying,” said Orsa, who lives nearby and feared splintering trees would pummel her house.
Forecasters said Florence’s surge could cover all but a sliver of the Carolina coast under as much as 11 feet of sea water.
The rising sea crept toward the two-story home of Tom Copeland, who lives on a spit of land surrounded by water in Swansboro.
The water “is as high as it’s ever been, and waves are breaking on my point, which is normally grass,” said Copeland, a freelance photographer for The Associated Press. “Trees are blowing down in the wind. Nothing’s hit the house yet, but it’s still blowing.”

Firefighters and Police Fought Wind and Rain

In Jacksonville, next to Camp Lejeune, firefighters and police fought wind and rain as they went door-to-door to pull people out of the Triangle Motor Inn after the cinderblock structure began to crumble and the roof started to collapse.

“There is still time, but not a lot of time.” — Derrec Becker of the South Carolina Department of Emergency Management
Farther up the coast, in New Bern, about 150 people waited to be rescued from flooding on the Neuse River, WXII-TV reported. New Bern Mayor Dana Outlaw told The Charlotte Observer about 200 people already had been rescued by 5 a.m.
The worst of the storm’s fury had yet to reach coastal South Carolina, where emergency managers said it was not too late for people to get out.
“There is still time, but not a lot of time,” said Derrec Becker of the South Carolina Department of Emergency Management.
More than 12,000 people were in shelters in North Carolina and 400 in Virginia, where the forecast was less dire. Officials said some 1.7 million people in the Carolinas and Virginia were warned to evacuate, but it was unclear how many did. More than 3,000 inmates at North Carolina prisons and juvenile detention centers were moved out of the storm’s path.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

US Universities Help Foreign Students Weather Trump Deportations

DON'T MISS

Alphabet Says Waymo May Offer Robotaxis for Personal Ownership in Future

DON'T MISS

US Pharma Tariffs Would Raise US Drug Costs by $51 Billion Annually, Report Finds

DON'T MISS

Beware of Scammers Saying You Won the Publishers Clearing House Drawing

DON'T MISS

Abundance Meets Resistance: Are CA Dems Finally Ready to Go All In on Building Housing?

DON'T MISS

Less Than Half of Californians Think K-12 Schools Are on the Right Track: Poll

DON'T MISS

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

DON'T MISS

Fresno City Council Finally Passes a Tough Smoke Shop Ordinance

DON'T MISS

Fresno Unified Trustee Wittrup Says District Had Stronger Candidates Than Misty Her

DON'T MISS

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

UP NEXT

Chicago Bears Great Steve McMichael Dies at 67 After Battle With ALS

UP NEXT

Long Wait Is Over for Cam Ward, Travis Hunter and Other Draft Prospects Joining the NFL

UP NEXT

Golden State’s Jimmy Butler Injured in Game 2 Loss, His Status for Game 3 Unknown

UP NEXT

Jalen Green Makes Eight 3s to Help Rockets Even Series With Warriors

UP NEXT

US Justice Department Directs Investigations Over Gender-Affirming Care

UP NEXT

US Justice Department Cancels Hundreds of Grants for Police, Crime Victims

UP NEXT

Yelich’s 5th Career Slam and Bauers’ 2-Run Homer Power the Brewers to Win Over the Giants

UP NEXT

Happ Hits Game-Ending Single in the 10th as the Cubs Rally Past Dodgers

UP NEXT

Trump: No Plans to Fire Fed Chair Powell, but Wants Lower Rates

UP NEXT

Top Producer at ’60 Minutes’ Quits Amid Trump Lawsuit Pressure

Beware of Scammers Saying You Won the Publishers Clearing House Drawing

53 minutes ago

Abundance Meets Resistance: Are CA Dems Finally Ready to Go All In on Building Housing?

53 minutes ago

Less Than Half of Californians Think K-12 Schools Are on the Right Track: Poll

54 minutes ago

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

15 hours ago

Fresno City Council Finally Passes a Tough Smoke Shop Ordinance

15 hours ago

Fresno Unified Trustee Wittrup Says District Had Stronger Candidates Than Misty Her

16 hours ago

Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say

17 hours ago

Lights, Camera, Board Vote: Fresno Unified’s Carefully Choreographed Production

18 hours ago

US Farm Agency Withdraws Proposal Aimed at Lowering Salmonella Risks in Poultry

18 hours ago

On Major Economic Decisions, Trump Blinks, and Then Blinks Again

18 hours ago

US Universities Help Foreign Students Weather Trump Deportations

(Reuters) – From warnings not to leave the country to guidance on how to complete degrees, U.S. universities are advising foreign stud...

13 minutes ago

Demonstrators hold a banner during a "Stand Up for Internationals" rally on the campus of Berkeley University in Berkeley, California, U.S., April 17, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo)
13 minutes ago

US Universities Help Foreign Students Weather Trump Deportations

16 minutes ago

Alphabet Says Waymo May Offer Robotaxis for Personal Ownership in Future

U.S. dollar banknote and medicines are seen in this illustration taken, June 27, 2024. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo)
19 minutes ago

US Pharma Tariffs Would Raise US Drug Costs by $51 Billion Annually, Report Finds

53 minutes ago

Beware of Scammers Saying You Won the Publishers Clearing House Drawing

53 minutes ago

Abundance Meets Resistance: Are CA Dems Finally Ready to Go All In on Building Housing?

54 minutes ago

Less Than Half of Californians Think K-12 Schools Are on the Right Track: Poll

15 hours ago

Yastrzemski and Chapman Homers Help Giants Rally Past the Brewers

15 hours ago

Fresno City Council Finally Passes a Tough Smoke Shop Ordinance

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend