Destructive Hurricane Florence to batter the Carolinas for days

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

Members of the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 4 from Oakland, California, search a flooded neighborhood for evacuees during Hurricane Florence in Fairfield Harbour, North Carolina.

Eduardo Corta cuts plywood boards to put on his mobile home a day before the arrival of Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Hurricane Florence has started to hit the North Carolina coast.

“In 12 or 18 hours, they may be saying different things all over again”, he said.

The impact of Florence will be widespread, with destructive winds, life-threatening storm surge, risky surf, torrential rainfall, flooding and the potential for tornadoes.

In this September 12, 2018 photo provided by NASA, Hurricane Florence churns over the Atlantic Ocean heading for the US east coast as seen from the International Space Station.

Florence is projecting hurricane-force winds outward up to 80 miles from its center; tropical-storm-force winds are swirling outward up to 195 miles away.In addition to the hurricane’s obvious risks, the National Weather Service says, “A few tornadoes are possible in eastern North Carolina through Friday”. But barber Josh Dais says the island’s 5,000 residents now are trying to decide whether to flee ahead of Hurricane Florence. It’s expected to move slowly over eastern SC on Friday night through Saturday night.

Winds of up to 110km/h are also expected for several days as the weather system slowly grinds over.

The National Hurricane Center said in its 11 p.m. Thursday update that Florence had weakened to a Category 1 storm.

“For further context, we accurately estimated the total economic impact from Hurricane Irma would be $100 billion”. Cooper said he hopes more shelters will also open today.

In the city of Charlotte, expect anywhere from five to eight inches of rain associated with Florence.

AP reported that as many as 1.7 million people are under mandatory or voluntary evacuation in the region.

Businesses across the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia will likely suffer financial losses from the approaching storm, with ports closing, farmers moving their livestock and expected power outages that could last for weeks.

A power outage model run at the University of MI projects that 3.2 million customers will be without electricity because of the storm, mostly in the eastern half of North Carolina.

How big is Hurricane Florence? .

Despite the hurricane losing wind intensity since its peak as a Category 4, it has grown substantially in overall size and its predicted deceleration in forward speed will take a costly toll. While the storm has weakened from a wind speed standpoint, the wind field has grown by almost 200 miles, according to Mulcahy.

The outer bands of the storm were already reaching the coast Thursday, bringing tropical-force winds and rain. This is bigger than both of the Carolinas and THIS is why rain is the biggest issue.

Where exactly the zone of heaviest rain sets up as the storm meanders inland is more uncertain, but models suggest that it may concentrate in southern North Carolina and northern SC through the weekend.