As Hurricane Florence barrels toward the Southeast as a Category 4 storm, South Carolina’s governor has ordered evacuations along the state's entire coastline — which could affect up to a million people.
"We know that this evacuation order is going to be inconvenient for some people," Gov. Henry McMaster said at a news conference on Monday afternoon, "but we do not want to risk one South Carolinian’s life."
Schools will be closed starting Tuesday in the affected counties and state officials will reverse lanes on four major roads leading to the coast to assist with the evacuation.
"We are not going to gamble with the lives of the people of South Carolina," McMaster, a Republican, said.
North and South Carolina are anticipated to bear the brunt of Florence, which the National Hurricane Center said on Monday had strengthened to a Category 3 storm. An hour later, at noon, the agency
tweeted that Florence had grown again to a Category 4, with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph.
By 5 p.m., the storm's winds had again increased to 140 mph, with even stronger gusts. The hurricane is expected to approach the coast of the Carolinas on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
In North Carolina, evacuations were already underway: Dare County officials issued a mandatory evacuation on Monday for Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks, and ordered more evacuations for other areas of the county beginning Tuesday morning.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam also issued mandatory evacuations to begin Tuesday morning for the most low-lying, flood prone areas of the state — the Eastern Shore and a section of coast identified by officials as "Zone A."
“Where should residents of 'Zone A' evacuate to? The simplest answer is go to higher ground and inland,” he said.
While the storm could weaken some before making landfall, forecasters expect it could still be a Category 3 or 4.
Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina warned residents to take the threat of the storm seriously.
"The forecast places North Carolina in the bull's-eye of Hurricane Florence, and the storm is rapidly getting stronger," he said. "When weather forecasters tell us 'life-threatening,' we know that it is serious."
North Carolina should brace for three dangers from Florence, Cooper said: coastal ocean surges, strong winds and flooding.
"All parts of the state could be affected by the storm," Cooper, a Democrat, said at a news conference Monday morning, warning that power outages could last for "awhile."
Late Monday afternoon, Florence was 525 miles south-southeast of Bermuda and about 1,170 miles east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, moving west at 13 mph.
McMaster and Cooper declared a state of emergency in their states, and Cooper had already activated 200 National Guard troops and asked President Donald Trump for a disaster declaration ahead of the storm so federal help can be made available as quickly as possible.
Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia also declared a state of emergency in advance.
On Sunday, South Carolina's state emergency management agency
tweeted it was "preparing for the possibility of a large-scale disaster."
Those in Florence's path weren't wasting time on Monday. Shelves in some grocery stores in Raleigh, North Carolina, were already bare, and residents were filling up their gas tanks,
reported NBC affiliate WRAL in Raleigh.
"Just in case I might have to make a quick getaway, I have a full tank of gas and I'm ready," Raleigh resident Tony Johnson told WRAL.
Nearly 200 miles to the south, at an Ace Hardware in the coastal town of Calabash, North Carolina, manager Tom Roberts told The Associated Press he’d sold 150 gas cans in two hours on Monday — along with plywood, rope, sand bags and other necessities.
"I’ve been doing this since 1983," Roberts said. "This is the craziest one."
In Mullins, South Carolina, recent transplant Dorthy Lee snapped a photo of empty shelves at a WalMart and posted it on Facebook with a caption: "Feeling a little anxious about this hurricane!!!"
Lee, who moved from New York a month ago and plans to ride out the storm in her new home, said Florence would be her first hurricane.
"Just praying everyone is OK," she said in an interview.
In Carolina Beach, just south of Wilmington, Landon Baggett also said he’d never before experienced a hurricane. A native of Chapel Hill, in the state’s interior, Baggett said he was a student and had only been on the coast a few weeks.
"I'm pretty worried," he said. "They said it's going to be pretty dangerous and we're going to have to evacuate."
"The danger is coming," he added.
Teresa Lynn Taylor hadn't yet decided what to do. Taylor, 52, owns the five-decades-old Silver Hill Grill in Holden Beach, and hasn't evacuated since Hurricane Diana struck the Atlantic Coast in 1984.
"When it's your whole livelihood, it's kind of hard to just walk away," she said.
In Lexington County, South Carolina, officials asked homeowners with ponds with dams on their property to lower water levels ahead of landfall to try to avoid dams from overflowing,
reported NBC affiliate WISC in Columbia, South Carolina.
Meanwhile, in Virginia, Dominion Energy utility crews were securing power lines ahead of the hurricane in anticipation of downed trees,
according to NBC 12 in Richmond, Virginia.
