Hurricane Florence Impacts Persist Across the Carolinas

September 20, 2018 Bridget O'Grady

Impacts from Hurricane Florence continue to be felt across both North and South Carolina. Governors in both states continue to warn against overconfidence when travelling in flooded areas. Health, safety, and environmental concerns still remain in force across much of North Carolina. Below are status updates for the state.

North Carolina ~

There have been 37 identified deaths since the storm made landfall on the evening of September 14.
Power outages persist, especially in the Wilmington, Fayetteville, Lumberton and other coastal areas. There are still about 170,000 locations without power – most of which are east of Interstate 95.
Highways in southeast North Carolina remain dangerous. 800 roads, including parts of interstate 95 are still closed. Access to Wilmington is severely restricted.
Major flooding continues in the Goldsboro, Fayetteville, and Wilmington areas.

For drinking water systems, as of September 18, the latest available posted data:

262 systems (serving 1.2 million people) have returned to normal operations
41 systems (serving 38,000) are closed and not producing water and 22 (serving19,000) need Bacti and/or Cl results to be cleared
73 systems (combined 548,000 population served) are operating under a system wide boil water notice or full/partial system boil advisory
19 systems (serving 270,000 people) have distribution system pressure problems
More than 100 systems (serving collectively around 1 million people) are operating with backup or emergency interconnection power sources.

Click here for more North Carolina Florence information.

South Carolina ~

The state is anticipating a significant flood risk increase. The state’s Emergency Operation Center (EOC) is still fully staffed and operating. By this weekend, several major rivers that originate in North Carolina where more than 20 inches of rain have fallen are expected to crest in areas along the South Carolina coast. The state is expecting to see worse flooding than that caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The Great PeeDee has already crested at more than 46 feet in Cheraw, SC and will be joined by the Waccamaw, Lumber, and Little PeeDee Rivers before emptying into the Atlantic near Georgetown, SC, about 60 miles north of Charleston.