Hurricane Florence Hits the Carolina Coast
Hurricane Florence is now destroying the homes of North Carolina citizens with its extreme rainfall and flooding.
Good news is that the storm is lessening since its category 4 peak last week, but is still destroying the coasts of the Carolinas with torrential rain, coastal erosion, storm surge, powerful winds, and power outages like never before. The rainfall is wrecking the historic records and according to axios.com, this storm has 0.1% chance of occurring in the Carolinas.
As reported by accuweather.com, the damages to the coast will cost $30-60 billion dollars. While Florence is forceful and catastrophic, it has about 50 inches less of rain than Hurricane Harvey which hit caused great damage to Texas in 2017, with it measuring up to 40 inches and Harvey coming to 90 inches. As reported by cleantechnica.com, Hurricane Sandy hit with 30 foot waves in the New York Harbor, while Hurricane Florence had 83 foot waves and is thankfully decreasing quickly.
Rescue missions have started in New Hanover County, where Wilmington, North Carolina is located. The flood water is incredible and deadly, so much so that I-95 was closed, according to weather.com. Sophomore Ryann Dopfel says, “I hope the residents of New Bern are safe and will be rescued soon.”
As for the long-term damages, the North and South Carolina coasts may be permanently altered because of eroding of the barrier islands. Homes and businesses might also be washed away off of these barrier islands because of torrential rain and extreme flooding.
“Hopefully it doesn’t hit us! I always get freaked out during hurricanes.” says sophomore student Madelynn Murray. Luckily, the hurricane won’t hit past the Carolinas for the time being. And at least 100 dogs and cats have been saved and put up for adoption, according to weather.com.
Florence is no joke. According to axios.com, the death toll had raised to 32 on Tuesday. This included a 1-year old boy who was snatched from his mother’s arms because of the powerful flooding.
Hurricane Florence will have an extensive recovery period and the people and land will never be the same.
"I have very good family friends who live in New Bern, North Carolina and we have been checking in with them, concerned for them and all who have been affected by Hurricane Florence." says sophomore Angeline Miraglia.
Hopefully the people involved with this catastrophe get assistance and safety soon.