Matthew pummels coast
Published 5:22 pm Saturday, October 8, 2016
Hurricane Matthew brought heavy rain and wind to Suffolk for much of Saturday and was expected to continue through the night and into Sunday morning.
Before the storm had even made landfall in South Carolina, Suffolk was seeing the effects in the form of wind and rain.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Montefusco said the hurricane’s forecast track had been fairly accurate, but Hampton Roads saw more effects than expected because of an upper-level trough that interacted with the hurricane and spread its effects over a wider area.
Rainfall totals were expected to be from 2 to 4 inches in Suffolk, he said, with some localized areas experiencing more than 10 inches in parts of northeast North Carolina.
Wind gusts from 40 to 50 miles per hour were expected late Saturday, in part thanks to a cold front coming through. Suffolk was under a wind advisory Saturday through Sunday, with winds expected to be able to knock down trees and large branches and blow around unsecured outdoor objects.
Suffolk was also under a flash flood watch through Sunday afternoon as well as a coastal flood advisory.
Montefusco said there was concern for minor to moderate flooding at the usual places, including the North Main Street crossing of the Nansemond River near downtown Suffolk. The flood concern likely will linger into Monday, he added.
About 4:30 p.m. Saturday, city spokeswoman Diana Klink reported no storm-related issues in the city. Around the same time, Dominion Virginia Power reported an outage affecting around 250 people in Western Branch but no outages in Suffolk.