Hurricane Floyd brought upwards of 18 inches of rain to areas of Eastern North Carolina on September 16, 1999. Along the Tar River, the cities of Rocky Mount, Tarboro, and Greenville were flooded extensively, and the river remained high until September 28, when another 8 inches of rain caused the rivers to crest again. Many residents remained in shelters, and schools remained closed, two weeks after the arrival of Floyd.

This pair of images from Landsat-7 shows the flooding in Tarboro. A regular pattern of light grey and white fields, sandwiched between the city of Tarboro to the west and a bend in the Tar River to the east, are easily seen in image from July 28, but were scoured by flood waters and appear dark grey in the image from September 30. Standing water (black) remains in much of the Tar River's floodplain in the later image.

Data courtesy Landsat 7 project