Isaias remnants bring flood watch to western North Carolina; Charlotte NASCAR races pushed to Sunday
Hurricane Isaias's remnants moved inland Saturday, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds to the mountains of western North Carolina. The National Weather Service office in Greenville-Spartanburg issued a high wind advisory and high wind warning for western North Carolina through 8 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, and a flood watch from 8 a.m. Saturday through 2 p.m. Sunday.
Isaias made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Destin, Florida, around 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 9, with sustained winds of 105 mph. By 7:50 a.m. Saturday, it had dissipated into a tropical depression.
"Although the center of Isaias is forecast to pass well to our west, tropical moisture will impact our area, bringing heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding over the mountains, foothills, and northeast Georgia as well as very gusty winds, especially at high elevations," the weather service said in a social media post.
NOAA's Weather Prediction Center forecast 3 to 5 inches of rain across upslope regions from northeast Georgia into the upstate of South Carolina and western North Carolina, with maximum totals of 6 to 10 inches across far western North Carolina into the Upstate of South Carolina. Forecasters said nuisance to minor flooding was possible along streams and low-lying areas, though widespread flash flooding or moderate river flooding was unlikely.
The storm knocked out power broadly: more than 560,000 outages were reported across southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle after landfall, and tens of thousands of outages were reported in Georgia as of 7 a.m. Saturday.
Heavy rain also disrupted the NASCAR weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Truck series race ran Friday, but Saturday's O'Reilly Auto Parts series race was postponed to Sunday; the NASCAR Cup Series Bank of America 400 is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET Sunday, with the O'Reilly race to follow — though the forecast called for an 80 percent chance of rain in Charlotte on Sunday.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：飓风「伊萨亚斯」卫星云图（资料图）。摄影：MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC，公有领域，来源：Wikimedia Commons
