Via Thomson Reuters: Hurricane Florence nears Carolinas, forcing westward exodus. Excerpt:
More than 1.5 million people were ordered to evacuate their homes along the U.S. southeast coast as Hurricane Florence, the most powerful to menace the Carolinas in nearly three decades, barreled closer on Tuesday.
Florence, a Category 4 storm packing winds of 130 miles per hour (210 kph), was expected to make landfall on Friday, most likely in southeastern North Carolina near the South Carolina border, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed declarations of emergency for both North Carolina and South Carolina, a step that frees up federal money and resources for storm response.
Residents boarded up their homes and stripped grocery stores bare of food, water and supplies. The South Carolina Highway Patrol sent "flush cars" eastbound on major highways to clear traffic, before reversing lanes on major roadways to speed the evacuation of the coast, state officials said on Twitter.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster ordered about 1 million residents along his state's coastline to leave starting at noon on Tuesday, when the highways will become westbound only. He evoked the memory of 1989's Hurricane Hugo, which killed 27 people in the state, in urging people to comply.
"I'd rather be safe than sorry," McMaster told ABC's "Good Morning America" TV show on Tuesday. "We want people to get out and get safe."
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued an evacuation order for about 245,000 residents in flood-prone coastal areas beginning at 8 a.m. local time.
The storm was located about 950 miles (1,530 km) east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, at 8 a.m. ET (1200 GMT), according to the NHC, which warned it would be "an extremely dangerous major hurricane" through Thursday night.
In addition to flooding the coast with wind-driven storm surges of seawater as high as 12 feet (3.7 m), Florence could drop 20 inches to as much as 30 inches (51 cm to 76 cm) of rain in places, posing the risk of deadly flooding miles inland, forecasters said. They warned the storm could linger for days after making landfall, drenching an already saturated landscape.
