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Patricia Sullivan
Journalist covering government, politics and other regional issues in Arlington County and Alexandria
WILMINGTON, N.C. – Hurricane Florence, which crosses the Atlantic with winds of 140 km / h, is about to crash Friday on the southeastern coast of the United States.
Tropical storm winds are expected to arrive in southeastern North Carolina on Thursday morning. The National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday that a "deadly storm surge is now very likely" along the coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina, and that government officials have issued orders to Evacuation covering more than 1.5 million inhabitants.
Forecasters said Tuesday afternoon that the eye of the storm was likely to hit the middle of the day Friday on a stretch of the North Carolina coast between Wilmington and Jacksonville, where the base of Camp Corps is located at The young. The Hurricane Center warned that the storm was "better organized and growing in size" and predicted that, despite a slight weakening before landing, the United States would become a major hurricane – category 3 or higher.
North Carolina's shoreline could receive more than 30 inches of rain near the storm landing, which could be combined with a storm surge to worsen floods for days, warn forecasters. They add that higher relief in the Appalachians and Piedmont – including much of Virginia – is already saturated with unusual summer rains and can no longer be absorbed. Major floods could affect areas as far removed from the projected land as Maryland, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley, if the storm turns north after landing.
"This storm presents us with multiple threats, multiple dangers," said Jeffrey Byard, an associate director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, during a teleconference Tuesday. He urged residents to evacuate immediately if advised by local authorities: "Do not wait until the last minute to see what happens.
[Hurricane warnings issued as ‘life-threatening’ Florence strengthens]
President Trump, speaking to reporters after a briefing with FEMA Administrator William "Brock" Long, urged people to flee the hurricane route: "I would say that everyone should go out. . . . Once this thing hits, it's going to be really bad along the coast.
This is the first major challenge of the 2018 hurricane season for FEMA, which a government audit described as "overwhelmed" last week when three major hurricanes hit the United States in a matter of weeks. FEMA was short of supplies and qualified personnel when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, a storm that devastated and weakened much of the island and was charged with nearly 3,000 deaths.
"We are absolutely and totally prepared," Trump told reporters.
[Hurricanes and wildfires overwhelmed FEMA in 2017, according to new GAO report]
The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper (D), announced Tuesday the mandatory evacuation of the state's popular and fragile barrier islands, including the external banks, which are often the first victims of the storms of the Atlantic.
"Even though you've already faced storms, it's different," Cooper said. "It's an extremely dangerous, life-threatening hurricane."
Officials in Dare County warned that overflowing oceans were already spilling over low roads and slowing evacuations along the North Carolina coast. The storm forced the closure of hundreds of schools throughout the region. Boeing and Volvo have shut down their plants in Charleston, South Carolina, thousands of people who build airliners and sedans.
Jeff Hogan, left, owner of Celtic Creamery, and Rob Warner sealed the door with plywood in Carolina Beach, NB on Tuesday. Hogan and Warner intend to evacuate the advance of Hurricane Florence. (Caitlin Penna / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock)
In Virginia, officials said inland floods could test the walls of the James River in Richmond, the state capital. The Navy Commander of the Central Atlantic Coast region has authorized an emergency evacuation order for personnel living in the low-lying area under mandatory evacuation, and those in charge of the emergency evacuation order Correctional Services reported that they evacuated a prison in this area. The Mayor of the District of Columbia has joined the Governor of Maryland in declaring an emergency day even before the rains begin.
The wave of turmoil spread on Tuesday to the sports world, when the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh canceled college football games scheduled for Saturday.
Forecasters expected the hurricane season to be calm – and until a tropical depression off the African coast turned into a storm and a hurricane named Florence. At first it seemed threatening, as it was thought that it might create a harmless open water circuit in the Atlantic Ocean.
But Florence challenged historical patterns.
Hurricanes can rotate at the last minute and there are still uncertainties about the trajectory of Florence. But the prediction is similar to that of last year with Hurricane Harvey, which lost momentum out of the Gulf of Mexico and hit the Texas coast, parked on the Houston area and dropped 60 inches of rain. triggering historic floods that continue to affect residents a year later.
[[[[The "Harvey Homeless": a year after the cyclone's flood of Texas, some endure lingering effects]
The National Hurricane Center predicted Tuesday that Florence would slow down to just three to five mph when it would reach the ground. The storm would quickly lose its strong wind field and within 48 hours it would become a tropical depression. But as he stumbles toward the mountains, he would continue to dump massive amounts of rain – up to 30 inches down the coast.
That would have broken North Carolina's record for a tropical storm – 24 inches – near Wilmington during Hurricane Floyd in 1999, said Greg Carbin, head of forecasting operations at the NOAA Prediction Center.
He said forecasters predict that 15 to 20 inches will fall from Florence as it moves inland. In some places, it has already fallen so much rain this summer that the water table is almost on the surface.
"They can not really take more rain in Virginia," said Carbin.
In Wilmington, the city was going up and closing on Tuesday. At Bridge Tender Marina, only three boats remained on the usual fleet of 70 boats, said Tripp Brice, the master of the docks. The rest had sailed to safer ports to the south, he said – and the last three would soon be on their way.
Customers push carts with plywood into a Home Depot store in Wilmington, NC before the arrival of Hurricane Florence. The hurricane could be the most powerful storm to hit land in North Carolina, as it hits as a Category 4 storm. (Charles Mostoller / Bloomberg News)
Lines were formed in a Home Depot in Wilmington, where residents buy plywood to nail their windows. In the parking lot, Donald V. Smith, 92, pushed a cart with two pieces of plywood. He said that if it were up to him, he would do nothing to prepare for the storm.
His children, who live in New York, want him and his 65-year-old wife, Peggy, to evacuate with their three dogs and two cats. He's not moving. He simply preferred to "follow the flow," he said.
Officials from New Hanover County, North Carolina, which includes Wilmington, have urged residents to leave Tuesday or be ready to stay independent for seven days without access to public services or commercial stores.
"If you can leave, you have to leave," said Woody White, chairman of the county commission.
The county and state partnered to open a 500-bed shelter for residents of Wilmington, Raleigh, and rented buses to take people there if they had no other means of transportation. Thirty people lined up on Tuesday afternoon under partly cloudy skies. The county deputy director, Avril Pinder, said the number of evacuees was low "because it is beautiful outside."
Delissa Pringle took her five children to the burning parking lot to catch the bus as warnings hit the house.
"I've been here all my life, and it's the worst I've ever had to face," she said, pausing at the bus door after her kids boarded.
County officials contacted medically fragile residents to make sure they were safe or had a way out of the city, officials said. Retirement homes and other facilities for the elderly or infirm are responsible for the safety of their residents, they added.
White, who has been through five hurricanes in the area, said Florence had prompted a level of alarm that he had never seen before.
"This is not the time to go out and party and have fun," he said. "It's time to monitor your family and your pets."
Traffic slowed down on the main highway connecting Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. In downtown Charleston, Sandra Mackey was among the 100 people gathered Tuesday morning in an old car park at the Piggly Wiggly supermarket to enjoy the sand and free sandbags that the city provides. She knows what a hurricane can do because she survived Hugo in 1989. It was painful, with winds of 140 km / h.
"I swore" never again, "she says.
But she stays this time, she said, because her husband had a stroke and she does not want him to have to go through an evacuation. A central element of her plan: she thinks the storm will hit somewhere other than Charleston.
Dave Collins shovels sand into a sack Tuesday as the coastal area prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Florence in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. The hurricane is expected to hit the ground on Friday. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
Samenow and Achenbach reported from Washington. Ann Gerhart in Washington and Doug Pardue in Charleston, SC, contributed to this report.
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