By Thursday afternoon, Hurricane Florence was labelled a category two storm, and later a category one.

Despite this, the storm still promised to bring with it some deadly consequences including storm surge, flooding, and what was expected to be a historic rain event.

Now we are seeing the effects of the hurricane that made landfall last week in the US.

CNN reports on severe flooding in North Carolina. The first deaths have also been recorded.

[On Thursday] Authorities confirmed that a woman and her infant daughter were dead – the first known deaths attributed to Florence. The child’s father was taken to a local hospital.

A group of firefighters who had rushed to the scene were shaken. They knelt outside the home in a circle and began to pray.

By Sunday night, the death toll was up to 18. Hundreds of people have been rescued from the Carolinas.

There are 17 patients in four medical shelters across the state, and officials are expecting more over the next few days as the flooding continues.

You can see footage of the devastation here:

Here’s more from The Guardian:

Hurricane Florence made landfall in a first world country, which means that it has been getting a lot of media attention, but it’s not the only natural disaster to cause massive destruction and flooding over the past few days.

The Economic Times reports that “local authorities in Nigeria’s southern state of Edo on Saturday said 30,000 people have been displaced by floods in more than 35 communities in the eastern and central part of the state”.

Then there’s also Typhoon Mangkhut, which slammed into mainland China, and left a trail of destruction in Hong Kong and Macau. Here’s The South African:

After killing at least 59 people in the northern Philippines, the world’s biggest storm this year felled trees and sent skyscrapers swaying in high-rise Hong Kong, injuring more than 200 people there before making landfall on the coast of Jiangmen city.

Provincial authorities said they evacuated a total of 2.37 million people and ordered tens of thousands of fishing boats back to port before the arrival of what Chinese media has dubbed the “King of Storms”.

You can see the extent of the destruction here:

Yep, global warming is definitely a thing.

[sources:economictimes&cnn&theguardian&South African]