TO CLOSE

It's good if a hurricane is heading towards you. That's why it's even worse if the hurricane is moving slowly.
AccuWeather

A paper presented Thursday morning by NASA shows Hurricane Florence seen from a camera outside the International Space Station.(Photo: NASA)

Hurricane Florence was weakened Wednesday night in a Category 2 storm.

This hurricane, however, is far from weak.

Even by degrading Florence, who is expected to crash into the Carolinas on Thursday night or early Friday night, the National Hurricane Center predicted a "potentially deadly storm surge", a catastrophic sudden flood and a prolonged major flooding of the river the winds."

That's why the Saffir-Simpson wind scale should not be the only measure of Florence's strength:

It's a large hurricane

Hurricane Florence is more important than the state of North Carolina and four times larger than Ohio. It would engulf the small states of New England.

On the night of Wednesday, the winds of the tropical storm of Florence were nearly 400 miles wide, the equivalent of the conduct of Washington, DC, at Charlotte, North Carolina; or from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to St. Louis; or from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

The vastness of the hurricane is why about 10 million people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia are being watched and warned. According to meteorologists, Florence could become the most powerful storm of the last 25 years.

Excessive rain

The national meteorological service predicts "excessive" rainfall, up to 40 inches in remote areas, while Florence moves off the coast of the Carolinas before touching the coasts of both states.

From Thursday night to Sunday morning, CNN said Florence would travel only 150 miles or less than the average speed of 2 to 3 km / h.

Hurricane Harvey, the 2017 whirlpool that swept through Texas and dropped more than 60 inches of rain, turned roads into rivers, destroyed homes and buildings and killed nearly 90 people.

It has been estimated that Harvey dropped the equivalent of 19 to 21 trillion gallons of water in the Houston area, or, as the Washington Post reported a year ago, enough water to fill four times the big salt lake of Utah.

Make waves

The NHC measured wave heights of up to 83 feet, the equivalent of a seven-story building, while Florence was beating Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean.

The waves will face resistance as Florence gets closer to the ground, but storm surges of up to 13 feet are expected in parts of North Carolina, according to the weather service.

"The deepest water will occur along the immediate coastline in areas of coastal winds, where the wave will be accompanied by large and destructive waves," the NWS report said.

The most deadly and destructive element of any hurricane, the Florence storm surge could flood tens of thousands of structures, said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper on Wednesday.

Power outage

As the largest electricity supplier in the Carolinas, Duke Energy is already warning that some 75% of its 4 million customers could lose energy, not just for a few hours.

"We're talking days or even weeks," Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks told CNN Tonight on Wednesday.

Goodbye, Florence?

They do not remove the name of each hurricane – and there is already a buzz that Florence will join Hazel (1954), Hugo (1989), Fran (1996) and Isabel (2003), the four most destructive hurricanes to hit. the southeastern United States.

The names are removed only "if a storm is so deadly or so expensive that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate," according to the National Administration's Web site. ocean and the atmosphere.

Do not sound like a weak hurricane, is not it?

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