The 'worst' of "Floyd" occurred 24 hours before the 'eye' arrived.

This is a picture of "Floyd."

The storm had a radius of 250 miles.  It was a huge storm.  It was carrying a lot of 'heat energy' with the size of the storm.

But, the 'torrential' rains that did most of the flooding started 24 hours before the 'eye' arrived. 

The 'edges' of a hurricane is where the water it is carrying, as vapor and otherwise, actually 'hits the ground.'  The center pulls the water up through, but, it then 'deposits' those waters to its periphery. 

With "Earl" the periphery will be the dominate effect on the Eaat Coast.  There will be considerable flooding and high winds that will also carry tornadoes.

These STORM SYSTEMS are no joke.  It is going to be bad.

Twenty people died in North Carolina with "Floyd."  Many of the deaths were due to flooding and not high winds.  The peripheral flooding that occurred 24 hours before the 'eye' arrived took many communities by surprise.  There have been many improvements in NC since "Floyd" but we talking about peoples' lives here.  The improvements will help with property damage but there are no guarantees with these unprecedented 'systems.'

Heavy rains cause flooding (click title to entry - thank you) in inland places as well. This picture was taken after Hurricane Floyd drenched parts of the U.S. East Coast with 8 to 16 inches of rain in 1999. (Image: NWS NOAA)