'Firehose' storm hits part of North Carolina and scientists see climate change

The Carolinas braced for a storm that forecasters warned could bring heavy rain — as much as 6 to 8 inches in some spots. But one narrow band got a “firehose” that dumped as much as 20 inches in a so-called 1,000-year flood that shocked many with its intensity.

The storm that left homes flooded, cars submerged and schools closed Tuesday in parts of North Carolina wasn’t really a surprise to scientists who have long said that such rainfalls are one marker of climate change.

“Data shows one of the strongest relationships between climate change and precipitation is that as the atmosphere warms, the capacity to hold water increases. Therefore we see more intense rainfall in a shorter period of time,” said Andrew Kruczkiewicz, senior researcher at the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University.

Monday’s deluge centered on Carolina Beach south of Wilmington, where more than 18 inches (46 centimeters) of rain fell in 12 hours and almost 21 overall. That much rain qualifies as a 1,000-year flood expected only once in that length of time, meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Wilmington said.

Some areas were hit particularly hard as the storm took a narrow path over the region, “causing a bit of a firehose effect,” NWS meteorologist Lauren Warner said. The agency’s forecasts allowed for “locally higher” amounts, but those weren’t close to what eventually fell.

“If that had moved just a little to the left or continued l the left, that would have mitigated some of the totals that we saw or perhaps spread them out over a wider area,” said Warner. The worst flooding occurred over parts of just two counties, her colleague Tim Armstrong said.

Ocean Isle Beach, just a little over 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Carolina Beach picked up less than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain.

Carolina Beach Mayor Lynn Barbee said the 21 inches that fell on his town was impossible to fully prepare for even in a place accustomed to tropical downpours.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it rain so hard and for so long,” said Barbee, who has lived on the coast for most of his life. “Not rain bands that get harder and let up or a front moving through. It just sat on top of us.”

The storm system was known as Potential Tropical Cyclone No. 8, but it never organized enough to become the eighth named tropical storm of the season.

The lack of a name added to the difficulty, Barbee said, since people pay more attention to named storms or hurricanes. Tourists were still arriving for beach vacations Monday at the height of the deluge. One family from Pennsylvania lost their van to the floodwaters and are in a shelter instead of their vacation rental, the mayor said.

“We’ve developed a communication dialogue. We communicate cones of uncertainty, expected path, time of arrival, strength on the Saffer-Simpson scale. People know what to expect. But suddenly we’re having storms that don’t fit on these scales,” Barbee said.

Carolina Beach is still cleaning up, and the mayor expects things to be back to normal by the weekend. But town officials are going to keep trying to figure out how to plan for heavy rain like they plan for 18 inches of water to come in from the ocean during a hurricane’s storm surge.

“A foot-and-a-half that falls out of the sky instead of from the ocean -- where does it go?” Barbee said. “We’re finding it in neighborhoods that have never flooded. It’s falling water and not rising water.”

The flash flooding closed dozens of roads in Brunswick County at North Carolina's southeast tip, including U.S. Highway 17, which is the main coastal route. Floodwaters swamped the highway at several points for most of the day, trapping some drivers on high ground that became an island.

Emergency workers brought food and water to people as they waited for the waters to recede, Brunswick County emergency officials said. No deaths were reported but dozens of roads in the county were damaged and many washed out.

Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Tuesday declaring a state of emergency for Brunswick and three other southeastern counties, which the governor said will make additional assistance available for the region.

It wasn't the region's first historic flood by any measure. The same area has seen four other floods of a lifetime in the past 25 years from Hurricane Floyd in 1999, unnamed storms in 2010 and 2015, and the benchmark flood with 30 inches of rain from Hurricane Florence in 2018.

The rain from the system had moved into southeast Virginia on Tuesday. Along North Carolina's Outer Banks, the storm closed vulnerable coastal highway North Carolina 12 on Ocracoke Island and threatened several homes in Rodanthe, where erosion and rising sea levels have destroyed more than a half-dozen beachfront homes this decade.

The Atlantic hurricane season continues through the end of November.

In an updated hurricane outlook last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was still predicting a highly active season thanks to near-record sea surface temperatures and the possibility of La Nina. Emergency management officials have urged people to stay prepared.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Gordon remained a tropical depression as it swirled through open ocean waters. Gordon could either dissolve in upcoming days or strengthen back into a tropical storm, forecasters said.

Flooding from heavy rains closed U.S Highway 17 near Winnabow, south of Wilmington, N.C., on Tuesday, Sept.17, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

This photo provided by Brunswick County Sheriff's Office shows a person walking through flooded water in Brunswick County, N.C., after a storm dropped historic amounts of rain, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Brunswick County Sheriff's Office via AP)

This photo provided by Brunswick County Sheriff's Office shows a police officer checking on a vehicle that fell into a sinkhole on a highway in Brunswick County, N.C., after a storm dropped historic amounts of rain, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Brunswick County Sheriff's Office via AP)

This photo provided by Brunswick County Sheriff's Office shows a flooded highway after a storm dropped historic amounts of rain, Monday, Sept. 16 2024. (Brunswick County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Flooding from heavy rains closed U.S Highway 17 near Winnabow, south of Wilmington, N.C., on Tuesday, Sept.17, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

Roads flood in heavy rains Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Southport, N.C. (Renee Spencer/The Star-News via AP)

Flooding closes part of Stone Chimney Road in Supply, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

Floodwaters inundated the Trademark Outdoors business on U.S. Highway 17 in Supply, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

A pickup truck sits in a washed out section of road on Old Ocean Highway in Supply, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)

In this image provided by the Wilmington, N.C., Fire Department, a firefighter carries a dog through floodwaters, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kure Beach, N.C., (Wilmington Fire Department via AP)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joel Embiid is trying to believe in the good that can come from asking for help. Embiid’s career has yielded an MVP — and so many more DNPs — with a biography littered by the kind of devastating injuries that can, in time, heal.

Ask even the most casual 76ers fan, and they can rattle off a CliffsNotes version of Embiid’s injury timeline: The broken bones in his feet, the grotesque dislocated finger that made it resemble a used bendy drinking straw, the torn meniscus in his right knee, the torn ligament in a thumb, a bout with Bell’s palsy, and even his latest ailment — a busted sinus that compelled him to ask a media horde to cut the camera lights because of his sensitivity to the brightness beaming in his face.

Embiid played Friday night wearing a carbon graphite mask straight out of the “Phantom of the Opera” prop department. He needed the protection to save his face from another errant elbow, another sudden strike, that could thrust him into the kind of prolonged absence that has defined his star-crossed career.

With the 7-footer boasting a wingspan that could stretch a couple of Liberty Bells, his knack for knocking down spot-up 3s, Embiid's presence in the lineup is all that separates the Philadelphia 76ers from a playoff team and title contender to one drowning in the NBA standings.

He feels the burden. He understands the hardships.

Selected by the 76ers with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, Embiid carries the weight of expectations of Philly — and beyond — with him, and the injuries that sidelined the 2023 MVP and have denied him a real shot at being heralded as one of the NBA's greats have led him to admit the cracks they formed in his mental health was something he could no longer ignore.

So the native of Cameroon who once never believed in seeking help from others had decided over time — much like elite athletes Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and retired swimmer Michael Phelps — to shake the once-taboo stigma of therapy and go all-in on the process to steer him through turbulent times in his professional career.

“It's kind of hard when you get in those moments where it's kind of hard not to feel bad about yourself, especially when you know who you are and what you can accomplish but it's not the way it is,” Embiid said. “One lesson that I learned is to try and stop feeling bad about myself and just live day-by-day. Enjoy good people around me, positivity and not focus on the negativity.”

Embiid has openly talked at times over the last year of feeling depressed from time on the shelf — he was sidelined for two full NBA seasons, and had chunks of so many others recovering, rehabbing, even resting — and this season was no different.

Embiid had his homegrown sidekick in All-Star Tyrese Maxey and nine-time All-Star Paul George along for the ride to form a kind of Big Three expected to challenge Boston, New York and Cleveland for Eastern Conference supremacy.

With all three walloped by injuries, they have played start-to-finish in all of two games this season.

Embiid slogged through headaches and dizziness to drop 34 points and led the 76ers past Charlotte on Friday night in a win that completed a 4-0 season sweep against the Hornets and propped the 76ers' record to a meager 9-16 overall.

“He does make the game so easy,” George said. “A lot of stuff was just plays we weren't in sync on. We'll get that as we're on the court more.”

The question again is raised around the NBA — what could the 76ers have accomplished had Embiid been healthy enough to always play 80 games a season?

As is the norm with Embiid, the two-time scoring champion will sit out the second game of a back-to-back Saturday at Cleveland.

“As long as it gets better every day,” Embiid said, “that'll be good.”

It's a modest goal as Embiid tries to make the days — using his word “manageable” — until perhaps it feels close to 100% in time for the playoffs.

His frankness in admitting he needed therapy belies a public persona of a 30-year-old who has delighted in playing the role of troll to needle rivals both in the locker room and on social media. Embiid — who signed a $193 million contract extension ahead of the season — has leaned on his wife and young son to push him through the hard days.

Embiid's a big brother to 20-somethings on the team like Maxey and rookie Jared McCain and he finally has a relatable peer this season in a fellow Olympic gold medalist George, who has had his own career interrupted by catastrophic injuries.

“You can never get enough of the support,” Embiid said. “If I'm being honest, when you've got the support from your family, people close to you, teammates, guys like (George), that's the reason why you want to keep doing it and you want to keep figuring it out. That's who you play for. The people who care about you, people that support you, people that push you. I have a hard time disappointing people, which I'm working on. When you've got that type of support, it's kind of hard to feel bad about yourself. I like to please people. You've just got to keep going.”

Keep going.

It's all Embiid can do now to find happiness on the court and in his personal life — and find some peace through treatment along the way.

He can at least improve his state of mind, even if the state of his body takes longer to heal.

“It's a work in progress. We'll see if it works," Embiid said. "You get to a point where nothing is working, I'm always willing to try anything and see if it works.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid left, tries to go up for a shot against Charlotte Hornets' Vasilije Micic during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid walks the court during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Charlotte Hornets, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid, left, goes up for a shot against Charlotte Hornets' Moussa Diabate during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid holds the ball during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Charlotte Hornets, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid reacts after being fouled during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Charlotte Hornets, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)