Hurricane Michael Could Bring Flooding To The Charlotte Region

Tropical storm Michael became Hurricane Michael Monday morning, and is on track to be in the Carolinas between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening. 

The National Weather Service is anticipating 1 to 2 inches of rain in the Charlotte region and 4 to 5 inches east of Raleigh, in some of the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Florence.

Spokesperson for the North Carolina Emergency Services and Department of Public Safety Keith Acree said state and local emergency teams are regrouping, and will be prepared for Michael. 

“These are communities that are trying to recover,” Acree said. “So, any additional rain just makes it that much harder for people who are trying to get their lives back together in the wake of Florence.”

Acree also said there could be trees down and power outages because of tropical storm strength winds.

In Charlotte, even those one or two inches could cause flooding, meteorologist Scott Krentz of the National Weather Service said.

“A lot of the streams in the Charlotte area are pretty shallow, and they flood fairly easily,” Krentz said. “It only takes a couple inches of rainfall to produce flooding in the Charlotte region.”