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.

A color-amplified satellite image of Hurricane
Florence, captured by NOAA satellites on September 14

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.

Read the story by Robinson Myer from The Atlantic - “Florence Will Drop an Inconceivable Amount of Water.”