Hurricane Florence aims closer to US East Coast
Dangerous Hurricane Florence edged closer yesterday to delivering a powerful blow to the east coast of the United States, with forecasters warning of life-threatening rainfall and flooding even as it weakened to a Category 2 storm. Georgia joined four other coastal states issuing an emergency declaration as forecasts showed Florence dumping historic amounts of torrential rain on the southern state.
As Florence closed in, President Donald Trump and state and local officials urged residents in the path of the storm to evacuate before it was too late. “Get out of its way, don’t play games with it, it’s a big one, maybe as big as they’ve seen. We’ll handle it. We’re ready, we’re able. Protection of life is the absolute highest priority.”
Appeals to stay safe came from as far away as space as German astronaut Alexander Gerst tweeted pictures of the monster storm taken from the International Space Station along with the warning: “Watch out, America!”
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that Florence’s maximum sustained winds had eased to 110 miles per hour (175 kph) and it had been downgraded to a Category 2 storm from Category 3 on the five-level Saffir-Simpson wind scale.
Up to 1.7 million people are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders, and coastal residents were frantically boarding up homes and businesses and hitting the road on Wednesday as the storm approached.
Florence is forecast to dump up to 40 inches (one meter) of rain in some areas after it makes landfall in North and South Carolina. Life-threatening storm surges of up to 13 feet were also forecast in some areas along with the possibility of tornadoes in North Carolina.
As of 2:00 am (0600 GMT), the eye of the storm was 235 miles (375 km) southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, moving northwest at 17 mph. It was heading for the coast of the two states but heavy rain was also expected in Virginia to the north and Georgia to the south.
Florence is being trailed in the Atlantic by two other storms – Hurricane Helene and Tropical Storm Isaac. Helene was weakening, however, and posed no danger to land, the NHC said, while Isaac could bring heavy rain to Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe.