The Destruction of Hurricane Matthew's Waves! (credit: This Is Oak Island, NC)

DISCUSSION: As hurricanes run parallel to densely populated coastal regions around the world, there are nearly always prolific consequences in a very short amount of time.  The associated impacts from the approach and eventual arrival of Hurricane Matthew was certainly no different than any other which has ever approached vulnerable coastal regions both in and outside of the contiguous United States!  More specifically, all the way from East-Central Florida to Eastern North Carolina, there were pronounced impacts felt by a nasty combination of strong winds, heavy rainfall, and a formidable storm surge for a fairly prolonged period of time across the entire aforementioned geographical region.

​ Along the coast of North Carolina, a strong impact was inarguably felt for more than 24 hours with sustained winds along and just inland from the coastal of 50 to 70 mph in many places and even some occasional gusts up to or over 90 mph!  Thus, it was a very long and scary couple of days across much of the coastal Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S.  Though, it is important to note that Florida was the impacted by Matthew within the confines of the U.S. and experienced the most volatile hurricane-force conditions of any state during the course of Matthew's interactions with the aforementioned parts of the East Coast.  In the video below, you will see how the massive waves associated with the arrival of Matthew proved to be destructive to infrastructure in areas both coastal and slight-inland (e.g., here in the form of the Oak Island pier being ripped to pieces by the strong waves coming ashore violently).  Thus, it is always imperative to evacuate if instructed to do so well ahead of the approach of a tropical cyclone with equivalent strength to that found in association with Matthew.

To learn about other tropical cyclone-related stories, be sure to click here!

~Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz

Click to set custom HTML