‘Florence’ weakens, lashes US East Coast

WILMINGTON, United States: The US east coast girded for a battering from Hurricane Florence late on Thursday (Friday in Manila) as the monster storm’s outer edge began lashing the Carolinas with heavy wind and rain, which forecasters warned could trigger

National Hurricane Center (NHC)

winds of Florence were 150 kilometers per hour, dropping it to the

But the storm still carried “very dangerous winds,” the Center added.

On Wednesday, Florence was downgraded twice from its peak as a Category 4 storm, which causes “catastrophic damage.” It is now at Category 1.

Hurricane- force winds began whipping North Carolina as federal emergency management officials warned that the hurricane remained a “very dangerous storm” capable of wreaking havoc along a wide swathe of the coast.

“Just because the wind speed came down, the intensity of this storm came down to a Cat 2, please do not let your guard down,” said Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), speaking earlier on Thursday.

Warning of looming storm surges

to take the storm seriously no matter the category, saying “this is all about the water, anyway.”

With winds picking up along the coastline early on Thursday, -

get out of the path of the “once in a lifetime” weather system.

- ported on the Outer Banks— barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina— and in some seaside coastal towns, as more than 110,000 power outages were reported statewide.

In Wilmington, North Carolina, a steady rain began to fall as gusts

- ence was over the Atlantic Ocean about 95 kilometers east-southeast of Wilmington, and moving north-

the NHC said.

Steve Goldstein of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Florence’s forward motion had slowed and it or Saturday morning.”

He said hurricane-force winds

the center of the storm and tropi-

nearly 200 miles out.

Some areas could receive as much as one meter of rain, forecasters said.

“This rainfall will produce cata

-

the NHC said.

A tornado watch was also in effect for parts of North Carolina.

FEMA’s Long warned the danger was not only along the coast: “In-

unfortunately, and that’s what we’re about to see,” he said.

About 1.7 million people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders and millions of others live in areas likely to be affected by