Hurricane Floyd, which has been threatening the south-east coast of the US, spared vast numbers of evacuated communities in Florida yesterday. However, it is expected to wreak havoc in North Carolina today. As of yesterday almost three million people had evacuated coastal areas from Florida to Virginia.
The hurricane was expected to make landfall today somewhere along the 70-mile stretch of coastline between Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. The eye of the storm is expected to pass near Wilmington this morning at around 7 a.m. with winds in excess of 100 m.p.h. Experts said yesterday the intensity of Hurricane Floyd had diminished slightly with windspeeds dropping to 125 m.p.h during the day. The hurricane was reclassified as category 3 (111-130 m.p.h).
Governor Jim Hunt declared a state of emergency in North Carolina and issued a mandatory evacuation order for all coastal areas to be cleared by 2 p.m. yesterday. President Clinton, abandoning a scheduled trip to Hawaii to return early to Washington from New Zealand, had earlier in the week declared the entire south-east coastal region a disaster area.
Earlier this week windspeeds had been measured at 155 m.p.h., making it a category 5 hurricane. Damage is still expected to be severe, with flooding anticipated.
Evacuation measures continued yesterday as the hurricane moved in a north-north-westerly direction past the Florida and Georgia coastlines and along the edge of the Carolinas at a rate of about 14 m.p.h. It is the largest hurricane to threaten the region in 60 years.
All main roads out of the region were crowded yesterday. Toll roads stopped taking tolls, and many highways permitted traffic to commandeer all lanes. Some 7,000 US Marine Corps recruits stationed on Parris Island, South Carolina, were evacuated on a fleet of school buses.
Of more concern than the hurricane winds in North Carolina last night was the "storm surge" expected at high tide around midnight US time last night.
Large tidal waves, two storeys tall, as well as heavy rains, were expected to cause extensive flooding in coastal communities.
Damage to property in some areas has been less than feared, but the cost to industry in terms of man hours will be over $10 billion. Disney World, Florida, was closed for the first time since opening 28 years ago this week.
The big winners in all this are the region's hotels. All hotel space in Orlando (130,000 rooms), Atlanta (77,000 rooms) and other major inland metropolitan areas have been taken, and officials were yesterday responding to complaints that hotel-owners were charging two or three times the normal rate.
All public transportation within the region has been suspended.
Meteorologists are also studying Hurricane Gert, which is rated category 4 and is gathering force several hundred miles off the southern tip of Florida. Floyd forces largest US evacuation: page 9