NASA satellite image of the hurricane.
Less than two weeks before Hurricane Floyd made landfall, North Carolina had been inundated with rain from slow-moving Hurricane Dennis. As Dennis drifted for days off the North Carolina coast, its winds dumped 3 to 10 inches across the eastern half of the state. The ground was saturated with water and waterways were still flowing with run-off from Dennis when Hurricane Floyd struck the state on September 16, 1999.
In early September, the spiraling formation of wind and rain known as Hurricane Floyd formed as a tropical wave off the Western coast of Africa. It crossed the Atlantic, picking up speed and intensity. By the time it hit parts of the Bahamas, it was considered a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
