Floyd Pummels Coast From SE to Maine

By: Corey "Weatherman" Potvin

Hurricane Floyd, once an immensely powerful Category Four on the Saffir-Simpson scale, made landfall on the North Carolina coastline Wednesday night after causing the largest evacuation in our nation's history. Sustained winds of up to 110 mph with gusts to 130 hammered the area, but caused only moderate structural damage. Had Floyd come ashore at its peak intensity, with winds of 155 mph and gusts near 200, the devastation would have been incredible. With a wind field three times the size of Andrew's in 1992, Floyd would have affected a much larger area than Andrew, making it perhaps the most damaging storm in U.S. history.

Despite the slackening in wind speeds, Floyd's moisture remained very much intact, and inundated locales in North Carolina with 15-20 inches of rain, resulting in one of the worst flooding disasters in that state's history. After slamming the Southeastern shoreline, Floyd accelerated into the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, where Flood Watches as well as Hurricane and Tropical Storm Warnings were already in effect. Rain began in our area late Wednesday evening and became torrential Thursady evening, resulting in widespread basement flooding, road closures, and rapidly rising rivers. A few cars were actually stranded on Lewiston/Auburn roads as water up to several feet deep accumulated on secondary streets. Winds were also present but less of a factor, gusting only to 36 mph in Lewiston. Nevertheless, over 10,000 CMP customers lost their power in southern and central Maine during the night.

Residents awoke to light rain and winds Friday morning, in stark contrast to the wild weather of the night before. However, flood advisories remained in effect as rivers continued to rise. A Wind Advisory was put into effect for nearly all of Maine and New Hampshire in anticipation of the strongest winds as Floyd made an exit through our state. As of Friday afternoon, winds remained tranquil, but they picked up that afternoon. Many people worried about power outages becoming a problem as trees, loosened by the saturated ground, were more susceptible to being blown over onto utility lines. Rivers, of course, were monitored closely and the Androscoggin was expected to reach bankful or higher Friday night. Tropical Storm Floyd hasn't failed to leave its mark on our state.

Note : As of 3:30 p.m. Friday, September 17, Lewiston had received 7.95 inches of rain. A majority of this fell in just six hours.