Hurricane Florence to Aim for East Coast as Category 4 Storm by Friday

Tybee Island in Georgia

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said that Tropical Storm Florence had regained hurricane strength and was hurtling towards the East Cost of the United States for a possible direct hit on Friday.

Currently at Category 1 status, meteorologists believe it could be a Category 4 storm by then.

“All indications are that Florence will be an extremely dangerous category four hurricane while it moves over the western Atlantic toward the south-eastern United States,” the National Hurricane Center said in a statement on Sunday.

Although it is still too early to predict the storm’s path, forecasters said that a huge swath of the coast from northern Florida to North Carolina should prepare for a major hit.

Category 4 is the second-highest hurricane classification category on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and includes storms with maximum sustained winds of 130-156 mph (209-251 km/h).

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, saying it is “preparing for the worst,” declared a state of emergency in the state.

At a Sunday news conference, the governor said that residents should “pretend, assume, presume that a major hurricane is going to hit right smack dab in the middle of South Carolina and is going to go way inshore.”

(Photo: Accura Media Group)