Florence About To Unleash Catastrophe On The Carolinas

Terrifying satellite photo of Hurricane Florence off te Carolina coast
this morning. 

Hurricane Florence continues its march toward the Carolina coast. Meteorologists and emergency managers are almost at a loss for words about how bad this is going to be.

Latest forecasts now have Florence stalling just off or over the coastline Thursday night and Friday.

This will unleash a long period of storm surges that will cause immense flooding in a large are of the coastline. Experts say some of North Carolina's barrier islands will never be the same after this.

Meterorologist are still expecting feet of rain, with some forecasts pointing to up to 40 inches of rain from this.

That would shatter records for the most rain from any storm in history along the East Coast. Of course, this would also mean incredible, unprecedented flooding.

Storm surges could range from nine to thirteen feet deep between Cape Fear and Cape Lookout.

This all might sound like I'm exaggerating. I'm not. A miracle could still happen and things might not be as bad as this, but don't count on it. Nobody else is.

A meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, North Carolina had this to say:

"This will likely be the storm of a lifetime for portions of te Carolina coast, and that's saying a lot given the impacts we've see from Hurricanes Diana, Hugo, Fran, Bonnie, Floyd and Matthew....I can't emphasize enough the potential for unbelievable damage from wind, storm surge and inland flooding with this storm."

Veteran storm chaser Reed Timmer said: "A storm like this is something that you can't really compare with previous history....We just simply have never seen a forecast track like this."

In other words, if you wanted to create a nightmare path for a hurricane, Florence has got it.

Another satellite view of Hurricane Florence. Note the solid clouds
around the eye indicating a strong, well-organized storm

There will be picky changes to the forecast strength, path and potential location of a stall with Florence, but it's now almost guaranteed that parts of South and North Carolina are in for an unprecedented disaster.

This also threatens to become an immense environmental disaster, too. As CBS reports, the flooding will hit countless manure pits and coal ash dumps, and the toxins from these sites will spread far and wide in the floodwaters.

Florence will affect all of is. For instance, CNN reports that the hurricane has a big chance of causing a giant spike in gas prices for all of us, especially for people up and down the East Coast, including us Vermonters.

Two major pipelines, including one that carries 100 million gallons of gas from Houston to New Jersey is in the path of Florence. The pipeline is highly vulnerable to damage.

There's probably a lot more I can say about Hurricane Florence, but I'm going to just let this go for today and brace for impact.