HGTV Halts Production as Hurricane Florence Makes Landfall

HGTV has halted production on several shows as Hurricane Florence bears down on the east coast.

The potentially deadly effects brought by Hurricane Florence, which made landfall on the North Carolina coast Friday morning and is expected to bring devastating rains and storm surges, has forced HGTV to halt production on a number of its series, including House Hunters and Island Life.

“Production for some of our house hunting series with episodes planned in North Carolina is postponed,” an HGTV spokeswoman told The Wrap.

It remains to be seen if the production schedule of Love It or List It, another popular HGTV series that films in the Carolinas, will also be affected, as the corporate communications team claimed that the series is not set to begin filming until next week.

“We do shoot Love It or List It in the Triangle area, but we’ve confirmed that production was not scheduled to resume until next week,” a representative said. “Our production teams will assess the situation and determine next steps after the hurricane passes.”

House Hunters and Island Life are not the only shows to be affected by the category one hurricane. The storm forced the cast of Bravo’s Southern Charm to evacuate South Carolina, with a number of the stars taking to social media to document the experience.

“While I’ve Evac’ed home to Charlotte, I’ve rummaged the house for an old book to read, and stumbled upon a little light reading. Old family friends gave me this book in ’96 to read to baby @kt_kroll!” Austen Kroll wrote on Instagram.

Florence, which has been downgraded to a category one storm after it had reached category four levels earlier this week, is expected to bring “life-threatening, catastrophic flash flooding” in North and South Carolina. Storm surges in some areas are forecasted to reach up to 11 feet.

The storm, which has already resulted in flooding along the east coast and has caused damage to several buildings, has also already resulted in more than 320,000 power outages in North Carolina alone, a number that is expected to rise as the storm continues its path.

In preparation of Hurricane Florence, mandatory evacuations were issues, and millions of people fled coastal areas to seek shelter inland, and emergency responders had to rescue residents of a North Carolina town after they became stranded due to flood waters.

The governors of Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina also issued state of emergency declarations.