Storm watches issued for North Carolina as Maria churns north

Bloomberg

Storm watches have been issued for North Carolina as the US is threatened by a hurricane for the fourth time in a month.
Tropical storm watches, meaning winds of at least 63 kilometres per hour could reach the coast of North Carolina as early as Tuesday, have been posted from Surf City to the Virginia border, the US National Hurricane Center said in a 5 pm New York time advisory. In addition, a surge watch has been posted from Cape Lookout to Duck because Maria may raise ocean levels by 1.2 metres.
“It is likely that some direct impacts will occur along portions of the coast beginning Tuesday,” wrote Daniel Brown, a warning coordination meteorologist at the center. “Storm surge flooding especially along the sound side of the North Carolina Outer Banks is possible.”
Hurricane Maria completely knocked out Puerto Rico’s power grid when it struck the island as Category 4 storm on Wednesday, after devastating the island nation of Dominica the day before. Across the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, tropical storms have killed at least 100. Ten people died on the US commonwealth, according to the Associated Press.
A record three Category 4 hurricanes have hit the US since Harvey came ashore in Texas on August 25, causing an estimated $170 billion damage, according to Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia. When damage across the Caribbean is considered, the current Atlantic season could cost $300 billion, said Joel Myers, founder, president and chairman of AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania.

Economic Costs
Maria’s economic cost to Puerto Rico may increase if the islands sees an exodus of residents fearful that water and power could be out for months, said Chuck Watson, of Enki Research.
“The people most able to leave—professionals, middle class—may well choose to leave,” Watson said. “Those people are vital to restore normalcy, so a recovery death spiral of sorts starts.”
If that happens, Maria’s effect on Puerto Rico could easily reach $60 billion to $70 billion, Watson said.
The storms had deep impacts on markets as well. Harvey temporarily shut about 25 percent of oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and 10 percent of US refining capacity. Hurricane Irma subjected Florida’s citrus groves to fruit losses that have wiped out some farmers. Maria’s tropical-storm strength winds reach out 230 miles from its centere, about the distance between Boston and New York.
The storm’s large size mean it will be able to reach North Carolina even if its core doesn’t come close to the state, Brown wrote in his forecast. On its current track, Maria will stay out to sea coming parallel with North Carolina on Wednesday before turning east into the open Atlantic.
Maria has already begun to affect the seas along the US East Coast. A buoy 272 miles off Charleston, South Carolina, reported waves of 21.7 feet and winds of 33 mph, according to the National Data Buoy Center website. Another off the North Carolina coast recorded 10-foot waves.
Ships plying the Eastern Seaboard have been warned of high winds and waves reaching as high as 28 feet within about 290 miles of the coast from Delaware to South Carolina, according to the National Weather Service.