Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long warned Thursday that Hurricane Florence could still cause up to 40 inches of rain and prolonged power outages along the East Coast, despite being downgraded to a Category 2 storm late Wednesday night.
“The storm surge forecast associated with this storm has not changed. This is a very serious storm. The power could go out for many weeks,” Long said during the agency’s latest briefing on the incoming hurricane.
Florence is expected to make landfall sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning along the coasts of North and South Carolina, where residents have been ordered to evacuate and brace for winds that could top 110 miles per hour. Long said most of the beaches in the area are set to face storm tides as high as nine feet.
[Opinion: A message for Hurricane Florence victims, from Hurricane Katrina]
“Florence is a very large hurricane with hurricane force winds extending outward 80 miles from the center,” Long warned, adding that the rain and wind bands “are going to be with us for several days” the anticipated inland flooding could harm “a lot of people.”
Parts of North Carolina started to see heavy wind and torrential rain Thursday morning as the monster storm moves closer to the state’s southeastern coast. The National Hurricane Center said it expects the hurricane’s center to make landfall Friday and remain over the Carolinas through Saturday evening.
Long said FEMA does not currently have a cost estimate for potential damage caused by Florence, but suggested it could be close to $15 billion — the combined costs of Hurricanes Floyd and Hugo, which Long said Florence closely resembles.
“If you want to look at the disaster dollars connected to either of those events, this one has the potential to line up with that,” he told reporters.
