ROCKINGHAM — One event has already been cancelled due to heavy wind and rains expected on Thursday.
The Rockingham Downtown Corporation made the decision to cancel its semiannual event, Affair on the Square, late Tuesday night. There will be no make-up date.
Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, along the western edge of the panhandle, around 1:30 Wednesday afternoon after strengthening overnight to a Category 4 storm. Maximum sustained winds were 155 mph— just 2 mph shy of a Category 5 — according to the National Hurricane Center.
Hurricane Michael is expected to travel quickly through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, before heading back into the Atlantic Ocean between Virginia Beach and Kitty Hawk.
Just after 11 a.m., the National Weather Service in Raleigh upgraded the Tropical Storm Watch to a warning. Though no expiration time was given, forecasters say central North Carolina would see tropical storm-force winds in the next 36 hours. Sustained winds are forecast to be between 20-30 mph and gusts could reach up to 57 mph, possibly causing damage to homes, uprooting trees and snapping large branches.
Much of central N.C. will also be under a flash flood watch from 6 a.m. Thursday until 5 a.m. Friday. The NWS says heavy downpours are likely in the overnight hours with 4-6 inches of rain possible between Interstates 77 and 95.
There is also a potential for the storm to spawn a few tornadoes.
The rain moving through Richmond County on Wednesday has no association with the hurricane.
Twenty-eight counties in the Tar Heel state, and several South Carolina border counties, were declared federal disaster areas after Hurricane Florence slowly passed through less than a month ago. Many of those same counties are expected to receive several inches of rain from Hurricane Michael, which is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it moves across the Southeast, heading northeast.
The extended forecast calls for a 30 percent chance of showers early on Friday, with sunshine and a high of 71 on Saturday for Norman Fest.
