Southeast US Coast Flooding   09/24 07:30

   Storm Weakens as it Heads North

   Residents in parts of coastal North Carolina and Virginia experienced 
flooding Saturday after Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall near a North 
Carolina barrier island. Ophelia is expected to sweep northeast Sunday along 
the mid-Atlantic coast to New Jersey.

   ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Residents in parts of coastal North Carolina and 
Virginia experienced flooding Saturday after Tropical Storm Ophelia made 
landfall near a North Carolina barrier island, bringing rain, damaging winds 
and dangerous surges.

   The storm came ashore near Emerald Isle with near-hurricane-strength winds 
of 70 mph (113 kph), but winds weakened as it traveled north with the center of 
the storm crossing into Virginia by evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center 
said. Ophelia is expected to sweep northeast Sunday along the mid-Atlantic 
coast to New Jersey.

   At 7:44 p.m. EDT, the center said that Ophelia had slowed to become a 
tropical depression, which is a weak form of a tropical storm, and all storm 
surge and tropical storm warnings had been discontinued.

   Still, videos from social media showed riverfront communities in North 
Carolina such as New Bern, Belhaven and Washington experiencing significant 
flooding. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

   Winds were decreasing, and the system was expected to track toward the 
northeast by Sunday. "Additional weakening is expected, and Ophelia is likely 
to become a post-tropical cyclone tomorrow," said a Saturday night hurricane 
center statement.

   Even before it made landfall, Ophelia proved treacherous enough that five 
people had to be rescued by the Coast Guard on Friday night from a boat 
anchored down near the North Carolina coastline.

   Ophelia promises a weekend of windy conditions and heavy rain as it churns 
up the East Coast, with the storm moving north at about 12 mph (19 kph) as of 
Saturday evening. Parts of North Carolina and Virginia can expect up to 5 
inches (13 centimeters) of rain, with 1 to 3 inches (3 to 8 centimeters) 
forecast in the rest of the mid-Atlantic region through Sunday. Some New Jersey 
shore communities, including Sea Isle City, had already experienced flooding 
Saturday.

   Philippe Papin, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, 
said the primary risk of the storm system over the next couple of days will be 
the threat of floods from the rain.

   "There have been tropical storm-force winds observed, but those are starting 
to gradually subside as the system moves further inland," Papin said in an 
interview early Saturday. "However, there is a significant flooding rainfall 
threat for a large portion of eastern North Carolina into southern Virginia 
over the next 12 to 24 hours."

   Power outages spread through more states beyond North Carolina, where tens 
of thousands of homes and businesses remained without electricity across 
several eastern counties as of Saturday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, 
which tracks utility reports. A Duke Energy map showed scattered power outages 
across much of eastern North Carolina, as winds toppled tree limbs and snagged 
power lines.

   "When you have that slow-moving storm with several inches of rain, coupled 
with a gust that gets to 30, 40 miles per hour, that's enough to bring down a 
tree or to bring down limbs," Duke Energy spokesperson Jeff Brooks told WTVD-TV 
on Saturday. "And that's what we've seen in most of the areas where we've 
experienced outages."

   Brian Haines, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Division of Emergency 
Management, said there were also reports of downed trees, but no major road 
closings.

   "North Carolina Emergency Management continues to monitor the situation and 
to work with our county partners, who are currently not reporting any resource 
needs," Haines said Saturday morning.

   Five people, including three children 10 or younger, needed the Coast 
Guard's help on the water when conditions worsened Friday. They were aboard a 
38-foot (12-meter) catamaran anchored in Lookout Bight in Cape Lookout, North 
Carolina, stuck in choppy water with strong winds.

   According to the Coast Guard, the sailboat's owner called them on a 
cellphone, prompting a nighttime rescue mission in which the crew used flares 
to navigate to the five people using a Coast Guard boat, then helped them 
aboard and left the sailboat behind. A Coast Guard helicopter lit up the path 
back to the station. There were no injuries reported.

   At the southern tip of North Carolina's Outer Banks, Carl Cannon Jr. said he 
hopes he can salvage some of this weekend's long-running Beaufort Pirate 
Invasion, a multiday event centering on the 1747 Spanish attack on the town. He 
said three ships battle it out and attack the shore, and "Blackbeard" even gets 
beheaded (though the real-life pirate was actually killed decades before the 
Spanish attack).

   But the storm's winds tore down the big tent for a banquet that was planned 
for Saturday, and several other tents were damaged or shredded. Cannon Jr. 
worries the financial hit will be significant, even with people helping clean 
up and offering to run online fundraisers.

   "It's been pretty devastating," said Cannon Jr., CEO of the nonprofit 
running the event. "I'm just hoping that we somehow will be able to recover."

   Cannon Jr. also hopes that soggy, windy conditions will allow for pirate 
reenactors to clash Sunday in Beaufort.

   "If I can get the boats out there, we will have an attack and the people 
will fight on the shore," he said.

   Elsewhere, the impact was more modest.

   Aaron Montgomery, 38, said as the rain started coming down hard on Saturday, 
he noticed a leak in the roof of the home his family just moved into in 
Williamsburg, Virginia. Still, they were able to safely make the hour-long 
drive for his wife's birthday to Virginia Beach, where he said the surf and 
wind were strong but it had stopped raining.

   "No leak in a roof is insignificant, so it's certainly something we have to 
deal with Monday morning," he said.

   The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland each declared a state 
of emergency on Friday.

   It is not uncommon for one or two tropical storms, or even hurricanes, to 
develop right off the East Coast each year, National Hurricane Center Director 
Michael Brennan said.

   "We're right at the peak of hurricane season. We can basically have storms 
form anywhere across much of the Atlantic basin," Brennan said in an interview 
Friday.

   Scientists say climate change could result in hurricanes expanding their 
reach into mid-latitude regions more often, making storms like this month's 
Hurricane Lee more common.

   One study simulated tropical cyclone tracks from pre-industrial times, 
modern times and a future with higher emissions. It found that hurricanes would 
track closer to the coasts, including around Boston, New York and Virginia, and 
be more likely to form along the Southeast coast.




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