Hurricane Matthew is now battering the coastline of the USA state of Florida but has been downgraded to a Category Two storm, with sustained wind speed dropping to 177km/h. “This storm is not over for North Carolina”. This will come to an end later on Sunday.
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McCrory signed a major disaster declaration that will provide “immediate federal assistance” and funding to respond to Matthew’s heavy rains and winds.
U.S. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Georgia and Florida, freeing up federal money to help the states fix damaged infrastructure and remove debris.
Even though Matthew made its first US landfall Saturday in SC, part of the storm’s eyewall – the hurricane’s strongest section – passed over coastal Florida, Georgia and SC from Friday into Saturday, flooding low-lying areas, downing trees and making some roads impassable.
Hurricane Matthew was downgraded to a Category 1 storm before making landfall between Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Saturday morning.
The storm was moving northeast out to sea, according to the latest US National Hurricane Centre report, which placed the center of the storm 160km off the coast of North Carolina.
Matthew – the most powerful hurricane to threaten the Atlantic seaboard in more than a decade – set off alarms as it closed in on the United States, triggering evacuation orders covering two million people. At 1 a.m. Sunday, North Carolina officials said there were 670,716 power outages across the state. On Friday, its 115 miles per hour winds and 12 ft. storm surges left hundreds of thousands in the Sunshine State without power and killed at least six.
The levee break in Lumberton County poured even more water on the interstate and McCrory said it is impossible to determine when the highway might reopen.
Hundreds of thousands of people were without power in North Carolina. A Fayetteville resident also posted this video to Instagram of a road being washed away amidst the torrential downpour.
Obama warned residents to be cautious, given the storm surge threat. North Carolina and SC also could be in line for aid.
Mobile phone networks are down and roads flooded, making it hard for aid to reach hard-hit areas in Haiti.
For almost its entire run up the coast from Florida, Matthew hung just far enough offshore that communities did not feel the full force of its winds.
“This has the potential for the worst flooding since Hurricane Floyd”, North Carolina Gov.
The eight-week period is historically responsible for major spikes in tropical weather activity, NOAA said. Florida Awakens to Devastation Meanwhile, the storm left a deadly trail of destruction in Florida.
“If people fail to leave and need help during the storm, there will be no one to help”, Jacksonville Beach Mayor Charlie Latham said.
As the skies cleared on Saturday, people started cleaning up, reopening their businesses or hitting the beach. “I’m homeless”, said the woman, who called herself Valerie. The hurricane center said a tide gauge reported storm surge of 4.28 feet. Florida’s governor kept sounding the alarm.
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Wind and storm surge damage could cause property losses of between $4 billion and $6 billion – and that’s just for insured homes and commercial buildings, CoreLogic, a real estate research firm, said Saturday morning.
