Skies were sunny and blue on Sept. 11 in Chadbourn, N.C., but Hurricane Florence was bound to change that reality by Sept. 12 or Sept. 13.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Florence has maximum sustained winds near 130 mph (215 kph). By 11 a.m. Sept. 11, Florence was about 905 miles east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and moving west-northwest at 16 miles per hour.
There is no way to know what to expect from Hurricane Florence, George Wooten, owner of Wayne E. Bailey Produce Co., Chadbourn, said Sept. 11. “We are a few days from really knowing... there is a saying that you don’t know how you look till you get your picture took,” he said.
Wooten said the eye of the hurricane is expected to make landfall north of north of Wilmington and south of Hatteras sometime Thursday, Sept. 13. Wooten said weather forecasts for the Chadbourn region called for eight or nine inches of rain, while other parts of the region could receive 20 inches or more. He said the crop could withstand eight or nine inches of rain. Harvest was just beginning for sweet potatoes, with harvest expected to increase seasonally the next couple of weeks.
