Rare weather event dumps a foot of rain in North Carolina in 12 hours: See photos, video

Parts of southeastern North Carolina experienced life-threatening flash flooding Monday as Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight brought rain totals not seen in hundreds of years, according to weather officials.

The Wilmington area received more than 15 inches of rain in some places, along with gusty winds and power outages, while the towns of Carolina Beach, Boiling Springs Lakes and Southport received more than a foot of rain in the first 12 hours of Monday, a weather event the National Weather Service in Wilmington happens on average once every 200 years.

The 18-plus inches that dropped on Carolina Beach in about 12 hours occurs "once every 1000 years!'' the office said.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation exhorted people in affected areas to avoid driving if possible on Monday, posting a photo of a collapsed and mostly submerged section of a street in Southport as the storm flooded dozens of roads.

The system, known as Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight, is forecast to move north across the Carolinas toward the Mid-Atlantic over the next day or so, according to the NWS, with "persistent showers and thunderstorms" expected across portions of North Carolina and the southern Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday, and locally heavy rainfall could result in "isolated to scattered instances of flash flooding."

Flood watches are in effect Tuesday for portions of southeastern Virginia and North Carolina, with precipitation coverage and density expected to decrease on Wednesday.

"By Thursday, this system will begin to shift offshore into the Atlantic and high pressure will build behind it," the NWS said Tuesday morning.

Storm tracker: Storm dumps heavy rain in NC, Gordon could re-intensify into tropical storm

Photos of flooding aftermath in North Carolina

Contributing: John Bacon and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rare weather event dumps a foot of rain in North Carolina in 12 hours: See photos, video