Hurricane Matthew razes Southeast coast, leaves NC flooded
Hurricane Matthew is no more as of Sunday afternoon, but the flooding from the storm, which is the worst since Hurricane Floyd in 1999 in many areas, will continue as rivers rise. The three-day rainfall totals were extreme (click to enlarge; alternate versions):
A complete list of rainfall amounts can be found on WPC's website. Here are the highest amounts by state:
- Savannah, GA: 17.49" - William O Huske, NC: 15.65" - Beaufort, SC: 14.04" - Chesapeake, VA: 12.84" - Orlando, FL: 7.89"
Hurricane Floyd provided flooding rain to a similar area in eastern North Carolina but didn't affect South Carolina or Georgia with the type of heavy rain that Matthew brought. Floyd also caused more rain in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New England.
Ironically, this flooding was almost a year to the day after South Carolina got 2 feet of rain.
Some records went back even further than Hurricane Floyd:
Almost every river gauge in eastern North Carolina is currently (circles) or forecast to be (dots) in major (purple) flood stage.
The winds were obviously a big deal as well. As the hurricane scraped along the coast (coming within 10 miles of landfall in Florida and temporarily making landfall in South Carolina), high winds and storm surge (at least 4 feet) were observed from Florida to Virginia. The highest wind gusts by state I could find were:
- Cape Canaveral, FL: 107 mph* - Winyah Bay, NC: 103 mph* - Tybee Island, GA: 96 mph - Hilton Head, SC: 88 mph - Virginia Beach, VA: 78 mph
*Elevated stations. Runners up were Jennettes Pier, NC, at 95 mph, and Patrick Air Force Base, FL, at 88 mph.
Among others, Hurricane Matthew set these new records:
- Lowest latitude Atlantic Category 5 hurricane on record - Longest-lived Category 4-5 hurricane in the eastern Caribbean on record (8th in Atlantic) - Biggest "ACE" in Eastern Caribbean on record - First hurricane to make landfall north of Georgia in October since Hazel (1954)
In the Carolinas, trees were downed as far as Columbia and Raleigh, even though the storm (mostly) stayed offshore. Flood reports extended even farther inland. There were over 1,800 Local Storm Spotter Reports issued by the NWS:
Over 3.2 million Edison Electric* million households lost power during Hurricane Matthew from Florida to Virginia.
Here's a history of the storm on Water Vapor satellite:
Both of my beach vacation spots, Oak Island and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, had damage from the storm. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Hurricane Matthew was located less than 8 miles off the coast of Oak Island, the closest hurricane approach since Diana in 1984. The dunes, which had been rebuilt since the hurricanes of the 1990s, were destroyed and storm surge caused overwash on the island, though mainly through public beach accesses.
The Outer Banks took on a lot of water, especially around Nags Head, where this video was taken:
*Edison Electric owns most of the major power companies in the United States, not including public- and cooperative-owned companies.
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