Tropical Storm — Jones, North Carolina

2018-09-13 to 2018-09-16 · Jones, North Carolina

Event narrative

A first ever, county wide mandatory evacuation was issued prior to Florence. Widespread heavy rain and strong winds developed over the region from the morning of September 13th through the morning of September 16th. Rainfall was generally 20' to 25' over the county with a storm total of 19.42' in Trenton. Extremely heavy rainfall across the county initially lead to flash flooding with numerous roads that were impassable. Flash flooding across the county quickly filled the Trent River, leading to historic flooding along it's banks in the town of Trenton and Pollocksville. Rapid river rises necessitated numerous water rescues for residents of homes across the county and even reached the second floor or roofs of several buildings. The river in Trenton crested at a record of 29.28 feet during the evening of the 17th, which exceeded the old record of 28.42 feet set after Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The Trent River at Pollocksville reached a record crest of 20.48 feet exceeding the old record of 16.29 feet set after Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Gusty northeast winds developed ahead of Florence as the storm approached the coast with tropical storm force gusts across the county. The gusty winds combined with saturated ground led to many downed trees with widespread power outages. NWS storm survey confirmed a EF 1 tornado 2 miles northeast of Stella in Carteret County and White Oak township in southern Jones county. Maximum estimated winds were around 100 mph. NWS storm survey confirmed a EF 0 tornado occurred near Pleasant Hill on 9/14 at 2044 EST. Maximum estimated winds were between 75 and 80 mph.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Florence was a long-lived Cape Verde hurricane and the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the Carolinas. The sixth named storm, third hurricane, and the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, Florence originated from a strong tropical wave that emerged off the west coast of Africa on August 30, 2018. Florence became a tropical depression near Cape Verde on August 31 and progressed west-northwest, becoming a Tropical Storm on September 1. Florence strengthened rapidly on September 4'5, becoming a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. Florence weakened to a tropical storm by September 7, but the system regained hurricane strength on September 9 and major hurricane status with winds of 140 mph on September 10. However, increasing wind shear caused the storm's winds to gradually weaken over the next few days. However, the storm's wind field continued to grow. By the evening of September 13, Florence had been downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane. Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach early on Saturday September 15, and weakened further as it slowly moved inland.

Florence produced extensive wind damage along the North Carolina coast from Cape Lookout, across Carteret, Onslow, Pender and New Hanover counties. Thousands of downed trees caused widespread power outages to nearly all of eastern North Carolina. The historic legacy of Hurricane Florence will be record breaking storm surge of 9 to 13 feet and widespread devastating rainfall of 20 to 30 inches, locally up to 36 inches, which produced catastrophic and life-threatening flooding. The hardest hit areas included New Bern, Newport, Belhaven, Oriental, North Topsail Beach and Jacksonville, along with Downeast Carteret County, or basically south of a line from Kinston to Cedar Island. A storm total rainfall of 34.00 inches was reported in Swansboro, while the NWS office in Newport recorded 25.20 inches. Wind gusts of 106 mph were reported at Cape Lookout with 105 mph at Fort Macon.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 787011. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.