Hurricane Florence continues to strengthen as it churns across the Atlantic Ocean toward the East Coast of the United States. Forecasters are predicting that before it makes landfall, Florence will become a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of at least 157 miles per hour. The massive hurricane is expected to reach the coasts of North and South Carolina on Thursday evening.
As Florence continues to intensify, authorities along the East Coast are urging residents to evacuate. One million people are expected to head inland after South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster ordered everybody on the coastline to leave.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper warned residents that the state is "in the bull's eye of Hurricane Florence." He said that the storm "is a threat well beyond our coast" and told residents who live inland that they need to be prepared for flooding rains and the potential for lengthy power outages.
"When weather forecasters tell us 'life-threatening,' we know it’s serious. We are bracing for a hard hit.”
The National Weather Service is warning that as Florence moves toward the coast, it will bring dangerous conditions with it. The agency expects "life-threatening" storm surge and rip currents to start impacting the coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas by Tuesday afternoon. Forecasters are predicting that Florence will slow down as it nears land and could drench the region with flooding rains. It could also bring damaging winds as it gains strength in the open ocean before reaching the coast later in the week.
"I think this is very Harvey-esque," Brian McNoldy, University of Miami hurricane expert told Fox News. "Normally, a landfalling tropical cyclone just keeps on going inland, gradually dissipating and raining itself out. But on rare occasions, the steering patterns can line up such that a storm slips into a dead zone between troughs and ridges."
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