EF1 tornado in New Hanover County, North Carolina

A tornado touched down near the intersection of Floral Parkway and

Park Avenue, causing minor tree damage as it moved quickly northwest.

Damage became more severe as it passed east and north of Empie Park,

where a few pine trees up to 18 inches in diameter were snapped, and

numerous large limbs broken. A nearly continuous path of tree damage

was observed as the tornado continued northwest across the Forest

Hills community and 23rd Street between Market Street and Princess

Place Drive. This area also received significant tree damage during

the landfall of Hurricane Florence, however the path of the tornado

was discernible by observing damage limited primarily to broken and

twisted limbs amongst tree tops. The heavy damage to large oak trees

in Forest Hills and on 23rd Street was apparently a result of the

hurricane, and not the tornado. The tornado moved northwest, crossing

Princess Place Drive and snapping several trees up to 10 inches in

diameter, along with numerous limbs along 21st Street and the

intersection with Klein Road. The tornado broke large limbs from a few

trees along Wynnwood Street in the Love Grove community before lifting.

Hurricane Florence began its long Atlantic trek from the Cape Verde Islands in early September. It made landfall near Wrightsville Beach during the morning of September 14th. The barometric pressure at landfall was 959 millibars, or 28.32 inches.The strongest winds were recorded at 106 mph at Cape Lookout, as well as 105 mph measured at the Wilmington International Airport. In addition to the strong storm surge, there was historic rainfall totals of 20 to 25 inches, with isolated totals of 35 inches in parts of Bladen and Robeson counties. Flash Flooding was severe and widespread, with many communities experiencing flooding for the first time. River flooding was epic, with dozens of main highways impassible. Significant flooding occurred for weeks after the storm had departed. The hurricane spawned 19 tornadoes, one causing significant damage to 8 structures in the Sydney community in Columbus county. The community at Lake Waccamaw experienced more damage than Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the previous benchmark for the area. In Pender County, over 6000 structures had damage, with 2800 structures suffered major damage or were destroyed altogether. Damage estimates from wind and water are in the tens of billions of dollars, making it one of the costliest hurricanes ever.