By Anandita Mehta
Staff Writer
Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 1 storm with maximum winds of 90 mph on Sept 14, at 7:15 a.m.
The eye of the storm was about ten miles from Wilmington, North Carolina. 10 million were people under hurricane watch or warning, and 1.7 million people were mandated to evacuate, according to Time.
The storm was downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 2 and then finally down to a Category 1 as it made landfall, according to USA Today.
The categorizations are based on the Saffir Simpson Hurricane wind scale. This is only a wind-based scale, and downgrading the storm does not mean that the storm has lessened in overall intensity, according to USA Today.
Water levels in northeastern South Carolina were measured at 10 inches above their normal state, and North Carolina rivers are at major flood stages, according to CBS.
As of Sept. 19, the storm killed 37 people, with 27 casualties in North Carolina, eight in South Carolina and two in Virginia, according to CBS.
Among the casualties were at least three children, and two mental health patients –– the latter of whom drowned while being transported in a sheriff’s van, according to CBS.
There are at least 343,000 people without power in North Carolina, with a combined total of 500,000 homes and businesses without power in North and South Carolina.
Additionally, 10,000 people are in shelters in North Carolina after being displaced from their homes due to evacuation and damage, according to CBS.
Along with human casualties, Florence also brought about environmental damage — 63,000 gallons of untreated wastewater leaked into North Buffalo, a tributary of the Cape Fear River Basin in North Carolina, according CBS.
All of the severe damage contributed to Hurricane Florence’s ranking in the top 10 most costly storms in U.S. History.
However, CBS estimates that there would have been more damage had the hurricane hit a more coastal part of North Carolina, rather than hitting the inland portion of the state.
