State of emergency in NC as Hurricane Matthew threatens coastal surge

Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency across North Carolina as Hurricane Matthew gathered strength Thursday, barreling toward Florida with enough force to potentially submerge parts of the South Carolina coast.

The most powerful storm to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade has already left nearly 300 dead in Haiti. Two million people across the Southeast were urged to flee inland.

Matthew packs sustained winds of nearly 130 mph, a strength that should continue as it nears – and possibly makes landfall on – the Florida coast Friday morning. “This is going to kill people,” Gov. Rick Scott said.

Little more than heavy rain and wind Friday night and Saturday is expected in Charlotte. Forecasters predict the storm, which was upgraded Thursday morning to Category 4, will turn seaward near the Carolinas border but drench North Carolina’s coastal counties.

Flash flood watches are in effect in counties to the east of Charlotte.

South Carolina could be in more trouble. The National Hurricane Center extended its hurricane warning, indicating an imminent threat, to the South Santee River north of Charleston.

A storm surge that occurs at high tide could wash water four to six feet deep – a potentially “life-threatening inundation,” the center said – around the historic city.

Experts last year pegged Charleston as the eighth most vulnerable area in the country to storm surge damage, the Post and Courier reported.

The National Weather Service said flooding in downtown Charleston could be worse than last year’s October storm, when high water closed the city for several days. Up to 14 inches of rain could fall by Sunday night, with hurricane-force winds reaching the state by early Saturday.

In North Carolina, McCrory declared a state of emergency for all 100 counties, enabling help to Eastern North Carolina and surrounding states.

While forecasters predict Matthew will turn east north of Charleston, McCrory told reporters, “if this storm does not turn right at Charleston, our conditions could change pretty quickly.”

Rainfall totals for North Carolina keep rising with updated forecasts, he said, with more than 10 inches predicted for the state’s southeastern coast beginning Friday and five to seven inches in inland counties. A storm surge of one to three feet was expected for the southeastern coast.

Voluntary evacuations have been called for in low-lying areas of Brunswick County, up the coast in Surf City and on Ocracoke Island. North Carolina has offered helicopters and swift-water craft to South Carolina.

In Charlotte, National Weather Services forecasts say rain could be heavy Friday night and Saturday, totaling up to three inches, followed by gusty winds of up to 29 mph.

At Charlotte Douglas International Airport, 39 flights to and from the airport were canceled by mid-afternoon Thursday for Florida and the Bahamas, according to flightaware.com.

South Carolina evacuations

Gov. Nikki Haley ordered additional evacuations Thursday along the southern part of South Carolina’s coast, in Colleton and Jasper counties. Evacuations were continuing in Beaufort, Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Georgetown and Horry counties.

Haley on Wednesday reversed the lanes of Interstate 26 for the first time so all lanes of traffic were headed west and out of Charleston.

But by Thursday morning, Haley said evacuations from the Charleston area were moving too slowly. She encouraged people to seek hotels in Charlotte because all of the hotels outside of the coast were full.

Charlotte-area hotels were filling up fast. The Holiday Express in Pineville is about 90 percent full, manager Gloria Bell said, with many of the people coming in from Charleston. The Courtyard Charlotte Ballantyne and the Renaissance Charlotte SouthPark Hotel were sold out.

In the coastal town of Bluffton, fire Capt. Randy Hunter had a succinct warning Thursday for residents: “If you haven’t left yet, please don’t wait until the last minute. If the power goes out, you're going to be stuck.”

On Hilton Head Island, which has been under an evacuation order since Tuesday, the Piggly Wiggly grocery store was one of few places open. A steady stream of shoppers came through the store until it closed and boarded up at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Hilton Head is expected to be closer to Matthew’s eye than any place else in South Carolina. Forecasters predict 3 feet of storm surge over most of the island and winds gusting to at least hurricane strength.

In Myrtle Beach, Rondu King Jackson filled his grocery cart.

“What we really worry mostly about is not the storm per se but we worry more about the flooding,” he told the Sun News. “We had a few rain storms here and the roads were all flooded and had nowhere to go and people got hurt.”

And in Charleston, the city ran out of sandbags after distributing 15,000, more than for any other storm.

‘A wake-up call’

By 11 p.m. Thursday, Matthew was about 125 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, moving toward the northwest at about 13 mph. The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. With hurricane-force winds extending outward up to 60 miles, Matthew could wreak havoc along the coast even if its center stays offshore.

Daniel Myras, who has lived for 25 years in Daytona Beach, where he owns the Cruisin’ Cafe two blocks from the boardwalk, struggled to find enough plywood to protect his restaurant. He was taking no chances with this storm.

“A lot of people here, they laugh and say they’ve been through storms before and they’re not worried,” he said. “But I think this is the one that’s going to give us a wake-up call.”

Matthew is forecast to make landfall Thursday night somewhere along the Florida coast, or possibly stay just offshore. Any slight deviation in the path could mean landfall elsewhere or could see the storm heading farther out to sea.

Either way, forecasters say it will come close enough to wreak havoc along the lower part of the East Coast, dumping up to 15 inches in rain in some spots. Storm surge of 5 feet to 8 feet was expected along the coast from central Florida into Georgia.

About 1.5 million people in Florida have been told to flee inland as Matthew makes it way toward the state. Orlando’s theme parks closed early Thursday and planned to reopen on Saturday.

Dana Harrison, who lives on a barrier island near St. Augustine, said she planned to wait out the storm with an out-of-town friend and her cat.

The 57-year-old Harrison says she used to live in St. Thomas and survived Hurricane Hugo in 1989, though the storm destroyed her house. She said she feels more secure in her current home.

Harrison might get a chance to rethink her decision. Forecasters say there’s a decent chance that Matthew could loop back full circle for a second, unwelcome visit to South Florida next week.

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 6:20 AM with the headline "State of emergency in NC as Hurricane Matthew threatens coastal surge."