Hurricane Florence has just broken our tropical cyclone state rainfall record, and there still may be more heavy rain to come in Florence’s slow crawl across our state.

The CoCoRaHS network near Swansboro, North Carolina, has reported a storm total of 33.90 inches of rain through Sunday morning.

This new record now tops the long-held tropical cyclone rainfall record for our state, previously held by the 24.06 inches rainfall record in Southport, NC during Hurricane Floyd in September 1999.

North Carolina now holds the 3rd highest state record behind Texas, Florida, and Alabama;

Florence also set a number of other rainfall records around our state over the past few days, including a 1-day rainfall total of 6.12″ in Charlotte;

Did you experience power loss or flooding during Florence?

Hurricane Florence is now on day 3 of causing flash floods and damaging winds across the Carolinas.

The downgraded category 2 storm (currently a tropical storm) first made landfall late Thursday night near Wrightsville Beach. While the storm hasn’t been as dramatic in terms of wind speed and structural damage as Hurricane Hugo or Matthew, it has already taken 5 lives, and over 360 people have had to be rescued from the town of New Bern, NC.

We put together this video from some of the most intense footage we found from around the Wilmington area;

Gov. Roy Cooper is still urging residents to be causious. In a recent statement, he said the worst might be yet to come and urged residents who had evacuated not to return home yet. He said forecasts predicted that the Cape Fear and Lumber rivers would rise “as high or even higher as in Hurricane Matthew,” which flooded similar parts of the state two years ago. “If the storm hasn’t reached you yet, it’s coming,” he said.

The North Carolina 911 Board has issued a set of guidelines and reminders designed to keep North Carolinians and the state’s first responders safer during Hurricane Florence.

“Our 911 centers, especially those in the southeastern and coastal regions of the state, will be challenged by an increased number of calls during the hurricane,” said Pokey Harris, executive director of the 911 Board. “We need the help of all North Carolinians to ensure that 911 is used only for true emergencies.”

Harris shared some guidelines for people who may need assistance as a result of the storm.

Do not call 911 unless you have an emergency that is threatening your life or the lives of people around you.

For anything other than a life-threatening emergency, call 211. Operators will be available at 211 to assist with weather and traffic updates, connect callers to public assistance, and provide other general help.

First-responders will not monitor social media sites or networks during the hurricane. If you have a life-threatening emergency, do not reach out through social media for assistance. Call 911.

As the number of calls increase to a specific center, calls may be rerouted to back-up centers outside of your county. This is not unusual in emergencies, and especially common during hurricanes and other weather events. The professionals at the back-up 911 center will be able to assist you quickly and effectively.

Be patient. First responders are working as quickly as they can. Many of them are volunteers who are stepping into harm’s way to help make others safer. They want nothing more than to try to help as many people as possible.

“911 centers are the heartbeat of safe communities,” said 911 Board chairman, State CIO and DIT Secretary Eric Boyette. “It is imperative that we keep operations running smoothly and we can’t do that without the help of our PSAPs, their managers and the public.”

The NC 911 Board is responsible for both wireline and wireless 911 communications in the state, as well as related policies and procedures, and it administers the state’s 911 Fund. The fund is used to support equipment purchases for all 911 centers in the state. The board is housed with the NC Department of Information Technology.

Hurricane Florence touched down early this morning on the South East coast of North Carolina as a devastating Category 2 storm, with wind gusts exceeding 100 mph, life-threatening storm surges, and widespread flash floods.

According to the Duke Energy power outage map, there are currently 322,272 customers without power in North Carolina (as of 10:35am);

Most of the outages are in Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus Craven, Duplin, New Hanover, Robeson, Sampson, Wake, Wayne, Pamlico, Pender and Onslow counties near the coast.

The company sent out a press release 2 days ago announcing that they estimate over 3 million customers could lose power from Hurricane Florence and that it may take weeks to restore.

The Carolina’s largest energy company has now amassed a team of over 20,000 workers to begin restoring power once the storm hits, including 8,000 Carolinas-based workers, 1,700 from Duke Energy Midwest, 1,200 from Duke Energy Florida, and 9,400 from other utilities.

If you live anywhere in the Carolinas, Duke Energy recommends having the following emergency items stocked in your home in case of a power outage;

• Car charger for cell phones and other devices
• Clean drinking water (recommended 1 gallon per person per day, minimum three days)
• Flashlights 
• Batteries: Extra batteries for all of your devices
• Weather radio/clock
• Non-perishable food
• First aid kit

All the above items are available via Amazon’s same-day Prime Now service if your local store has already been cleaned out.