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On the forecast track, the center of Florence will approach the coasts of North and SC later today, then move near or over the coast of southern North Carolina and northeastern SC in the hurricane warning area tonight and Friday.

As Florence, now a tropical storm, swirls at a near-standstill over the Carolinas the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) is sending 42 firefighters to North Carolina to assist.

Florence, a onetime hurricane that weakened to a tropical depression by Sunday, dumped up to 40 inches (100 cm) of rain on parts of North Carolina since Thursday, and continued to produce widespread heavy rain over much of North Carolina and eastern SC, the National Weather...

US Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Karl Schultz meanwhile told ABC 28 aircraft had been deployed as well as 35 “shallow water rescue teams”.

More than 60 people had to be rescued in another town as a cinderblock motel collapsed at the height of the storm’s fury.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper warned residents to be careful as the outer bands of Hurricane Florence began to hit the coast on Thursday afternoon.

Hurricane Florence’s potentially devastating winds are generating enormous waves as high as 83 feet as it continues to make its way toward the East Coast and insurers predict it will become the costliest such storm to ever hit the continental U.S.

All four major United States airlines have said they are capping selected airfares below what last-minute tickets would cost.

The storm is moving toward the northwest at 17 miles per hour (28 kph), the NHC said.

The storm was expected to move across parts of southeastern North Carolina and eastern SC on Friday and Saturday, then head north over the western Carolinas and central Appalachian Mountains early next week, the NHC said.

Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Maryland have declared states of emergency.

A mother and baby were killed when a tree fell on their home in Wilmington.

“It certainly is a challenge forecasting precise impacts when its exact track won’t be known until a day in advance”, Landsea said.

The father was transported to a hospital.

Florence is now expected to begin delivering tropical storm-force winds in the region by early Thursday, escalating to hurricane-force winds by late Thursday or early Friday. “But looking back at the forecast tracks for Hurricane Florence from the National Hurricane Center...