A once-in-1,000-year rainfall event from an unnamed storm floods homes and forces rescues in North C

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A once-in-1,000-year rainfall event from an unnamed storm floods homes and forces rescues in North Carolina

CNN
By Mary Gilbert
Mon September 16, 2024




Floodwater surged into homes, stranded vehicles and forced water rescues in coastal North Carolina on Monday after a tropical storm-like system dumped historic amounts of rain in a matter of hours.

“It’s probably the worst flooding that any of us have seen in Carolina Beach,” Town Manager Bruce Oakley told CNN of the tourist town not far from Wilmington. “We’ve had to rescue people from cars, also some from houses and businesses.”

Emergency services fielded dozens of calls for rescue, Oakley added.

Carolina Beach was placed under a state of emergency Monday after a “historic” 18 inches of rain fell there in 12 hours at one station, a once-in-1,000-year rainfall event, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington. More than a foot of rain in 12 hours was reported elsewhere in the area, a once-in-200-year rain event.

(more)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/16/weather/tropical-storm-helene-south-north-carolina-climate/index.html

[heelboy22]

YIKES!  I grew up in north Wilmington (about 30 minutes north of Carolina Beach) but haven't lived there in almost 30 years.  My family is still there, though.  Hurricane Florence in 2018 was a slow mover and dumped a TON of rain on them.  This seems to be a bit worse maybe.  I'm sure some sort of climate change is to blame.   

[Sighlass]

15" of rain in 12 hours can do a lot of damage, I remember 10" of rain from a freak 5 hour summer storm (that just sat there)... doing a huge amount of damage on our canyon.... Washed out roads and some mobile homes were floated down.... A storm that only covered about 1/4th of our county, but was a mean sucker.