Hurricane Florence will bring “life-threatening, catastrophic flash flooding” to North and South Carolina, the US National Hurricane Centre has warned, as president Donald Trump vowed the federal government was “ready for the big one”.
The agency also predicted massive quantities of rain – more than a metre in some places – would fall as the storm slowed and stalled over coastal states and other inland areas, including in Georgia and Kentucky.
Florence, with sustained winds of 130mph, is on course to become the first Category 4 storm to make a direct hit on North Carolina in more than half a century, and is already pushing a storm surge and rain ahead of it.
The hurricane’s threat has caused supplies of food, drink and petrol to run out in some parts of the US East Coast where more than 1.5 million people have been ordered to evacuate. Officials warned the storm would be “nothing like you’ve ever seen”.
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“It’s been very calm and easy. You have a couple customers who’ve been agitated,” Mr Boykin said, adding he had already personally prepared for Florence before coming into work on Wednesday.
That includes the lions, tigers and giraffes at the Virginia Zoo, and the more than 100 dogs and cats at the SPCA shelter in northeastern North Carolina, ABC News reports. “I am planning for the worst and hoping for the best,” said Judy Anthony, the manager of the SPCA shelter in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
The NRC said Duke Energy's Brunswick nuclear plant south of Wilmington, North Carolina, could face hurricane-force winds, major storm surges and heavy rain, according to the Associated Press.
Duke said it has a procedure to begin shutting down plants at least two hours before the arrival of hurricane-force winds. Duke also operates three nuclear plants in South Carolina, though none are on the coast.
The National Hurricane Centre says the waves were measured by satellite.
The huge waves are being produced because currents are trapped by very strong winds moving in the same direction the storm's motion. The centre's Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch is tweeting about the phenomenon.
The center of the storm is about 485 miles (785 kilometers) out to sea, with tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 175 miles
National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham warned that a slight shift in Florence's forecast track does not mean that some communities north of the storm are now in the clear, the Associated Press said.
The “cone of error” in the forecast track only predicts where the storm's centre might go, and even on its edges, winds can push a powerful storm surge into shore dozens of miles from where Florence's eyewall strikes land.
“There’s no water. There’s no juices. There’s no canned goods,” Kristin Harrington said as she shopped at a Walmart supermarket in Wilmington, North Carolina, ahead of the Category 4 storm’s impending arrival.
Long queues formed at service stations as thousands of motorists streamed inland to escape the storm.
Fierce winds and massive waves are expected to lash the coasts of North and South Carolina and Virginia even before Florence makes landfall, and its rains will take a heavy toll for miles inland, the National Hurricane Centre in Miami warned.
Packing maximum sustained winds of 130mph (215kph) the storm is expected to grow stronger and larger over the next few days, the NHC said.
“This storm is a monster,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said. “Even if you’ve ridden out storms before, this one is different. Don’t bet your life on riding out a monster.”
“This storm is going to knock out power days into weeks. It’s going to destroy infrastructure. It’s going to destroy homes,” said Jeff Byard, an official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday: “We got A Pluses for our recent hurricane work in Texas and Florida (and did an unappreciated great job in Puerto Rico, even though an inaccessible island with very poor electricity and a totally incompetent Mayor of San Juan). We are ready for the big one that is coming!
“Hurricane Florence is looking even bigger than anticipated. It will be arriving soon. FEMA, First Responders and Law Enforcement are supplied and ready. Be safe!”
To hasten evacuations from coastal South Carolina, officials reversed the flow of traffic on some highways so all major roads led away from shore. Miles of traffic slowed to a crawl along the main highway along North Carolina’s Outer Banks barrier islands.
The last Category 4 hurricane directly hit North Carolina was Hazel in 1954, a devastating storm that killed 19 people and destroyed some 15,000 homes.
States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
In addition to flooding the coast with wind-driven storm surges of seawater as high as 13 feet (4 m), Hurricane Florence could dump 15 to 25 inches (38 to 64 cm) of rain, with up to 35 inches (89 cm) in some spots, forecasters said.
“The Storms in the Atlantic are very dangerous,” Donald Trump tweeted. “We encourage anyone in the path of these storms to prepare themselves and to heed the warnings of State and Local officials. The Federal Government is closely monitoring and ready to assist. We are with you!”
State governors said they would open shelters for displaced residents.
Behind Florence in the Atlantic are at least two other storm systems, Hurricane Isaac and Hurricane Helene. In the Pacific, the state of Hawaii is expecting to be hit by its second hurricane of the season if tropical storm Olivia makes its way to the islands as predicted. Isaac has weakened in recent hours, the NHC said.
