Hurricane Floyd, 1999. Aerial photograph of inland flooding caused by Hurricane Floyd. J. Jordan of the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Flood of the Century, the 500-Year Flood, Hurricane Floyd. It remains the single greatest disaster in North Carolina’s history. This mammoth storm was twice the size of a normal hurricane, but the true devastation began after the storm had passed. North Carolinians went to sleep the night after the storm only to wake with flood waters lapping over their bedsides. Floyd’s torrential rains had produced record-breaking flooding.