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| When made landfall in North Carolina | Thursday, September 16, 1999, 6:30am |
| Where it made landfall | Cape Fear, New Hanover County, NC |
| How intense | Category 2, peak gusts up to 138 mph |
Other facts:
- Hurricane Dennis passed through on 8/30/99, weakening trees and saturating the ground and rivers.
- Hurricane Floyd developed from a Cape Verde wave (off the coast of W. Africa) to a hurricane on 9/10/99, and strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane over the Bahamas on 9/12/99.
- Floyd dumped 15-23 inches of rain across several counties. The Tar River at Tarboro reached 40.9 feet, a record high. The previous record was at 34 feet in 1919. Flood stage is at 19 feet.
Facts related to damage caused in North Carolina:
| Number of... | |
| Human fatalities | 51 |
| Swift-water rescue evacuations | 1,400 |
| NC counties declared disaster areas | 66 (out of 100) |
| US states declared disaster areas | 9 |
| Customers who lost power | 1,500,000 |
| Flooded wastewater treatment plants | 24 |
| Dams destroyed | 7 |
| Houses damaged | 54,000 |
| Houses destroyed or uninhabitable | 16,674 |
| Mobile homes for temp. housing | 2,536 |
| Cost of damage to state highways | $150,600,000 |
| Cost of damage to drainage and sewage systems | $75,300,000 |
| Cost of agricultural losses | $963,000,000 |
| Dead hogs | 30,500 |
| Dead chickens | 2,200,000 |
| Dead turkeys | 737,000 |
Sources: North Carolina Humanities Council(pdf), NC Division of Emergency Management, and The Charlotte Observer
But don't take our word for it! Research this with your students. You may find different figures. Below is an example of how an internet search indicates that different news sources are not in agreement over similar facts:
| The Rundown | Times Picayune | Southern Cultures | Carolina Population Center | |
| Rainfall totals | 15-20 in. | Exceeded 20 in. | ||
| Wind speed | 105 mph | |||
| Deaths | 51 | 51 | 51 | |
| Homes destroyed | 7000 | 7000 | ||
| Homes damaged or uninhabitable | 73,000 | 15,000 | 56,000 | |
| Lost power customers | 500,000 people | 1.5 million people | ||
| Land under water | 18,000 square miles | |||
| Homeless | 10,000 people | 100,000 people | ||
| Cost of damage | $6 million | |||
| Counties declared disaster areas | 66 | 66 | ||
| People in shelters | 48,000 |
Sources:
Hurricane Floyd: Extended Flooding Created Challenges Afterward (1999). [Electronic Version]. The Rundown, Vol. 19 Number 38. Retrieved March 22, 2006 from http://www.tvrundown.com/9938.htm
McQuaid, John, (2002). Seeking Shelter. Times-Picayune. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved March 22, 2006 from http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf?/washingaway/seekingshelter_1.html
Thompson, Charles, (2001). The Great Deluge: A Chronicle of the Aftermath of Hurricane Floyd. Southern Cultures 7.3 (2001) 65-82. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved March 22, 2006 from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/southern_cultures/v007/7.3thompson.html#fig15
Assessing the impact of Hurricane Floyd. (n.d.) Retrieved March 22, 2006, from http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/floyd/
