Hurricane Florence Events

In September 2018, Hurricane Florence struck the Carolinas, resulting in catastrophic damage. Florence dropped a maximum total of 35.93 inches of rain in Elizabethtown, North Carolina. This makes the storm the wettest tropical cyclone recorded in the Carolinas, and the eighth-wettest overall in the contiguous United States.

By Sept. 4, Florence became a Category 4 major hurricane with estimated maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. On Sept. 7 the governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Maryland and the mayor of Washington, D.C. declared a state of emergency. Just two days later, the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia issued mandatory evacuation orders for some of their coastal communities, predicting that emergency personnel would be unable to reach people there once the storm arrived.

On Sept. 11, the slightly weakened Florence began to strengthen again. However, the greater wind break off caused the storm's winds to gradually taper over the next few days. Nevertheless, the storm's width continued to grow.

By the evening of Sept. 13, Florence had been downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, though the storm began to stall as it neared the Carolina coastline. Early on Sept. 14, Florence made landfall just south of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, and weakening further as it slowly moved inland.

Despite making landfall as a weakened Category 1 hurricane, Florence still had enough wind speed to uproot trees and cause widespread power outages throughout the Carolinas.The storm continued to dump heavy rain along coastal areas from Sept. 13 to the 15.

Coupled with a large storm surge, the rain caused widespread flooding along a long stretch of the North Carolina coast; from New Bern to Wilmington. As the storm moved inland, , heavy rain continued to cause widespread inland flooding. Many places received record-breaking rainfall, with more than 30 inches measured in some locations. At least 53 deaths were attributed to the storm, and damage is currently estimated at more than $38 billion.

With the recent destruction of Hurricane Florence, the region is still recovering and have yet to come out with final and long term effects of the Florence. However, with the increase in rainfall from Hurricane Michael, there is going to be a big effort to help rebuild the regions that the two storms have hit.