High water not letting up in Carolinas
- by Brittany Mendoza
- in Research
- — Sep 22, 2018
The crisis from Hurricane Florence is slowly moving to SC along with the trillions of gallons of water dumped by the storm.
They passed a vehicle buried in floodwaters Tuesday and called out to see if anyone was in it. "We will continue to do that going forward".
A swift recuse boat motors through floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in Nichols, S.C., Friday, Sept. 21, 2018.
Moreover, the company says: if in the near future rescuers will not pave the way to the farm near Lamberton (North Carolina), the number of dead birds will increase substantially.
President Trump will visit North Carolina on Wednesday to view areas affected by the storm, and Bender said said the president "absolutely" needs to visit Pollocksville and other small towns.
"We're at the end of the line of all waters to come down", said Georgetown County Administrator Sel Hemingway, as he warned the area may see a flood like it has never seen before.
Florence County emergency management officials issued the order Friday morning for about 500 people along 58 roads and streets in the area.
Florence is slowly moving northeast, where tornadoes associated with the storm hit Virginia.
The interstate first closed early Monday as portions were overtaken by flood water near the North Carolina border.
Many of those waterways are rising or cresting, though a few were receding.
Roads remain treacherous, he said, and some are still being closed for the first time as rivers swelled by torrential rains inland drain toward the Atlantic.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said he knows the damage in his state will add up to billions of dollars, but said with the effects on the storm ongoing, there was no way to make a more accurate estimate.
"It is compelling and sobering to see these storms come in back-to-back seasons", said Jim Kossin, an atmospheric research scientist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Hurricane Florence has claimed 31 lives in North Carolina, by the state's count.
State troopers are asking anyone who doesn't need to drive in the area to stay home.
"Please heed the warnings", Sheriff Lane Cribb said.
The Brunswick County, N.C., government is urging evacuees to be patient returning to their homes.
As the extent of the damage comes into focus, so too are the lessons for the next storm.
Four days ago, the Cape Fear River was 15 feet deep.
Almost 2 feet (60 centimeters) of rain fell over this coastal county.
"The fire ants are doing their thing where they float and if you get close to them they will swim to you", Conway resident Debbie Long told South Carolina Public Radio.
"We can attribute that additional rainfall to human-induced climate change", said Kevin Reed, a professor at Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, who contributed to the study. "Due to the fact that a lot of these rainfall levels were higher than historic levels, it made it harder to predict because you didn't have a benchmark to weigh that against".
The LV Sutton coal power plant was retired in 2013, and today the plant operates as a natural gas plant, which Duke said continued to operate safely and is being monitored.
But there are glimmers of hope in the wake of Florence.
The National Weather Service reported flooding at 30 river gauges on Thursday, 12 of them major, mainly in North Carolina, but also in SC and Virginia.
"This isn't a river ... this is Interstate 40", the state's transportation department tweeted, along with drone footage of the scene. It will have its wettest year in the city's 140 years of record-keeping. For a time, Wilmington was effectively cut off, according to reports.