Florence Will Drop an Inconceivable Amount of Water
On Friday, Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina. It was also downgraded to a Category 1 storm: Its high winds, while still “extremely dangerous,” are no longer the storm’s scariest trait.
But then again, they never were.
Florence’s main threat has always been the water. In the coming days, Florence will besiege the Carolinas through two different mechanisms: First, it will inundate the coastline with powerful and deadly storm surge. Second, it will drop trillions of gallons of water across the region, from the barrier islands to the Appalachians, overwhelming dozens of rivers and creeks and initiating 1,000-year floods.
Florence, in a way, is a double threat, combining hurricane hazards new and old. Storm surge has long been dangerous: Historically, it has caused about—have dumped so much rain that they trigger devastating floods far inland.
