Photo: Doc Searls

The recent rain in the Carolinas has been close to unprecedented.  Meteorologists have referred to it as the “1,000-year rainfall.”  Another way to describe it is that it was “enough rain to float a battleship.” In this case, however, that was not a metaphor but literally what happened with the battleship USS North Carolina, which had been sitting firmly in the mud near shore on the Cape Fear River, in Wilmington, North Carolina.  Flooding due to heavy rains added to the already high tides from the super blood moon eclipse resulting in an over 5-foot rise in the river, which proved enough to float the ship. The last time the battleship floated was in 2010. The river also flooded the parking lot causing the Battleship North Carolina Museum to close for several days.

Battleship floats as a result of rain, flood