New Carolina Flooding Week After Florence; Severe Vermont Weather Wednesday?

Dead fish on Interstate 40 in North Carolina after water
receded off the roadway.

Hurricane Florence began to depart the Carolinas a week ago today, after spending a full weekend drenching the region in record rains.

It hasn't really rained in the Carolinas since, but water from Florence is still causing worsening flooding even today.

Some rivers in the Southeast drain slowly, so flood crests move downstream slowly.

So, up to 8,000 people in Georgetown County, South Carolina have been told to get out of their houses by today, as a flood crests from the Pee Dee and Waccama rivers approach.

The Pee Dee River has already caused destructive flooding upstream in North Carolina.

In North Carolina five rivers remain at major flood stage and several more are at least at moderate flood levels. Some water has receded near Wilmington, North Carolina, which had been cut off because flooding had submerged all routes into the city last week. That's the good news.

The bad news is the Cape Fear River is still rising, and could send floodwaters into downtown Wilmington, which had earlier largely escaped the worst of the flooding.

Parts of Interstates 95 and 40 remain closed, as do dozens of main state highways in North and South Carolina.

At last check the death toll from Florence was at 43. The Weather Channel says Moody's Analytics puts the damage total so far from Florence at about $44 billion, making this one of the top 10 costliest disasters in recent United States history.

Water receded from one stretch of Interstate 40, leaving parts of the highway littered with thousands of dead fish. The Penderlea, North Carolina Fire Department was called in to spray the dead fish off the highway with their hoses.

"Well, we can add 'washing fish off the interstate" to the long list of interesting things firefighters get to experience," the fire department said in a Facebook post.

VERMONT SEVERE WEATHER WEDNESDAY?

The area in yellow could see severe thunderstorms Wednesday.
Note that Vermont is in this zone. 

It's becoming possible that severe thunderstorms could hit Vermont on Wednesday, along with a big chunk of the rest of the Northeast

We're enjoying tranquil autumn weather today with highs in the pleasantly cool low 60s (as opposed to the record 91 degree heat on this date last year.) The weather looks like it will get, um, interesting over the next couple of days.

First, a warm front will move across the region Tuesday. The good news with that is it will spread more showers across the area, which still needs more rain. Gusty winds will again get going in the Champlain Valley, but it won't be as harsh as it was on Friday.

After the warm front passes, we'll get into a zone of warm, humid air for this time of year. In the Champlain Valley,  highs could approach 80 degrees on Wednesday if the sun comes out enough, and it will feel sticky.

The amount of sun we get Wednesday will be one important factor on whether some thunderstorms that develop will turn severe.

A cold front will be approaching in an atmosphere with strong upper level winds and other conditions suitable for strong thunderstorms. If it remains overcast, the air will remain relatively stable and rambunctious thunderstorms will be few and far between.

If the sun comes out, the air will be more unstable, and the line of storms coming into Vermont from New York would be stronger. In any event, not everyone will get a severe storm Wednesday. But it's possible a few areas could get damaging wind gusts.

A lot can change between now and Wednesday. We'll want to wait and see if the timing of the cold front, and whether the atmosphere will be unstable enough for an outbreak of strong storms. We'll keep you posted.

Video: A fire department hoses dead fish off of Interstate 40 in North Carolina as flood waters recede, in that area, anyway: