Tropical Storm Isaac continues to weaken as it approaches the Caribbean

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

Olivia is the first tropical cyclone to make landfall on Maui in modern history, National Weather Service forecasters said. The storm is expected to slow down, stall and then perhaps wander just off the Carolina shore as it nears the coast Thursday, Friday and Saturday. That would crush the state record from hurricane Floyd. “We’ve prepared all our supplies at home and frankly, we were bored”.

Capt. John Reed, commander of Coast Guard Sector Charleston, said the Coast Guard has established an emergency management team and is bringing in units from other parts of the country to assist with the aftermath of the hurricane.

Elsewhere in Wilmington, Linda Smith, a 67-year-old retired nonprofit director, was concerned as she watched wind gusts stir up frothy white caps on the Cape Fear River.

“From 8am until 2pm we were slammed”, said Johnson, who sold scores of bags of sand over the weekend, saving just a few to barricade the store’s own doors. “I am frightened about what’s coming”.

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

Duke Energy, a power company in the Carolinas, estimated that one million to three million customers could lose electricity because of the storm and that it could take weeks to restore.

Body surfer Andrew Vanotteren, of Savannah, Ga., crashes into waves from Hurricane Florence, Wednesday, Sept., 12, 2018, on the south beach of Tybee Island, Ga.

According to the NHC forecast at 5 p.m. on September 12, the storm is forecast to slow down near the coast of North and SC before it passes over the states and into Georgia.

“Data from an Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft along with satellite imagery and various intensity estimates indicate that Florence has weakened instead of strengthening”.

More than 1 million people have been ordered to evacuate the coastlines of the Carolinas and Virginia.

“For a meandering storm, the biggest concern – as we saw with Harvey – is the huge amount rainfall”, said Chris Landsea, chief of tropical analysis and forecast branch at the National Hurricane Center. Gen. Robert Livingston, adjutant general for SC, said in a statement. In the worst affected areas, the water has the potential to reach 9-13 feet (2.7 – 4 meters) above ground if peak surge occurs at the time of high tide. Based on the current forecast track, the North Carolina coast is most susceptible to a direct strike while impacts are to extend far from the center.

On this track, the centre of this system is forecast to pass between 100 and 150 miles (160 to 240 km) north of Barbados early tomorrow.