Flooding will affect the Cape Fear region at least through this week, but the rainfall will be the least of it.
First, the good news: the Cape Fear region has seen the majority of the rain from Florence.
Reid Hawkins is with the National Weather Service in Wilmington.
"Right now it looks like we’re expecting in the Wilmington area possibly up to one to two inches more. But that’s probably on the extreme side of how much rain we’re going to get."
While that rain will make conditions worse, Hawkins says flooding is the biggest concern from the Northeast Cape Fear River near Burgaw which feeds the Cape Fear River near downtown Wilmington. The river is at 22 feet near the Port City, and Hawkins says they expect it to flood today.
" …and then reach about 29-30 feet on Thursday and then just level out. So we’re really not going to see it crest any time soon due to all the water upstream and coming down."
Flooding is worse during high tides – which affect the Cape Fear River. Hawkins says the road to normal river levels will be long and slow.