Hurricane Florence Hit the Carolinas and parts of Virginia on Monday, Sept. 14. It is the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane season.

According to Forbes, people were warned in advance that it would be smart to evacuate but not everyone followed that suggestion. The storm caused 37 known deaths as of Wednesday, Sept. 9.  There are currently around 500,000 homes in the affected areas without power.

“I would be really devastated if I had to leave everything behind,” sophomore Ella Schmidt said. “Everything I know is here in Lincoln and I couldn’t imagine if it was all of the sudden gone.”

According to NBC, North Carolina had 30 inches of rain since Thursday. Sixteen major rivers in the state of North Carolina are flooded.

“If I ever experienced 30 inches of rain I would just be shocked,” junior Kael Frank said.  “It is a lot of rain and I would evacuate if I could at that point.”

The hurricane originated from a strong wave off the West Coast of Africa. It was announced as a Category 4 hurricane Sept. 4. It was then downgraded to a tropical storm Sept. 7. The weather officials later changed it to a Category 1 hurricane.

The hurricane came to a halt on Sept. 16 but flooding is still damaging houses and property in the Carolinas. The damage so far is estimated to be $17-22 billion.