ROCKINGHAM— Florence may not be finished with the Carolinas just yet.
A remnant of the once-Category 4 hurricane that devastated parts of North and South Carolina over the weekend could be headed this way.
According to the National Weather Service, a low pressure system left over from Florence has looped back around and currently has gale-force winds. As of 8:07 p.m. Thursday, the system was 100 miles northeast of Bermuda heading southwest at 15 mph.
While the probability is only 20 percent, meteorologists say the low could develop tropical characteristics over the next five days.
If it does become a tropical system, it would be renamed “Nick,” according to Chris Justice, a meteorologist with WYFF-TV in Greenville, S.C.
“As of now, I do NOT expect anything strong,” he said in a Facebook post Thursday afternoon.
The European model predicted the loop as early as Tuesday.
Hurricane Florence dumped 8 trillion gallons of rain on the Carolinas over the weekend after producing a storm surge that caused flooding along the coast from Hyde to Brunswick counties.
The storm made landfall last Friday near Wrightsville Beach and slowly made its way across the Carolinas through Saturday and Sunday.
Most counties south of U.S. 64 and east of Interstate 85 received some flooding.
Elizabethtown in Bladen County recorded nearly three feet of rain, according to preliminary totals on a chart from National Weather Service. Swansboro, which was hit by the surge, received 34 inches.
Further inland, Rockingham recorded more than 14 inches of rain, Lumberton had 22.76 and Raeford received 14.32.
In addition to the rain, Florence’s strong winds snapped trees which landed on power lines, leaving millions of people without electricity.
As of 10 p.m. Thursday, Duke Energy reported that 38,067 of its customers were still in the dark, 266 of those in Richmond County.
