Wilmington, North Carolina Cut Off By Florence Floods

People lined up outside one of the few open grocery stores in
Wilmington, North Carolina Sunday. Photo from NBC News

There is now no way to get in or out of Wilmington, North Carolina, at least on the roads.

All roads that lead to and from Wilmington, a city with a population of more than 117,000 are covered in flood water from ex-hurricane Florence.

I don't remember the last time a city was so marooned by a disaster. Maybe New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina?  Last year with Hurricane Harvey in Texas?

NBC News reports that few stores and restaurants are open in Wilmington and those that are have only limited supplies of food. On top of that, power is largely out, many of the streets that aren't flooded are a tangled mess of debris, fallen trees and wires. Many buildings have damaged roofs from the 90 mph winds Friday morning and are leaking as more rain falls.

At one supermarket, staff allowed only ten people at a time into the store to maintain order, NBC News said. There was a huge, long line out front. Scuffles broke out at another supermarket.

As you can see in such a big disaster, nerves get extremely frayed after days of dealing with this mess.

At least 17 people have died in the storm so far. Some videos of this storm's effects are at the bottom of this post.

To add to the misery the storm spun off some tornadoes. A television station in Wilmington had to go off the air for awhile as staff took shelter during a tornado warning. When they got back on the air, the roof was leaking.

Many rivers in North and South Carolina are at or near record levels. Even as the rain tapers off, it will take weeks in some cases for the water to recede. This is a long-haul disaster for sure.

Florence, or its remains lingered over the Carolinas all weekend, but it's finally starting to move. It will travel up the Appalachian chain and then head east over or near southern New England.

Flash flood watches are up for this path, although the rain won't be as heavy or nearly as prolonged as it was in North Carolina. Two to four inches of rain are likely in southern New England.

The remains of Florence will likely miss the northern half of Vermont. Southern Vermont will get some downpours.

This is all too bad. Southern Vermont doesn't really need the rain, but northern Vermont does. We can't catch a break, can we?  

On the bright side, the big burst of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic has subsided big time, at least for now.

Tropical Storm Joyce way out in the eastern Atlantic, has been downgraded to a depression and will probably dissipate. It is no threat to land.

Tropical Storm Isaac in the Caribbean dissipated and its remnant cluster of showers and thunderstorms was near Jamaica this morning. There's only a small chance that Isaac will redevelop.

ABC News gives us an aerial view of someo of the widespread flooding:



Interesting perspective from a guy who returned to his house for the first time after fleeing. About 12 to 16 inches of water got into the house. The man said he's lucky because they have a second floor and moved some of their possessions upstairs before the flood hit:



Here, the Coast Guard rescues about a dozen beagles from a flooded pen. They said had they got there just a bit later, the dogs would have drowned.