'Catastrophic' Florence buffets US east coast

The outer edge of Hurricane Florence began buffeting the Carolinas with wind and rain on Thursday as forecasters warned the monster storm would trigger life-threatening flooding as it assaults the US east coast.

As Florence churned slowly towards the coasts of North and South Carolina as a Category 2 hurricane, federal and state officials issued final appeals to residents to get out of the path of the "once in a lifetime" weather system.

"This storm will bring destruction," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said.

"Catastrophic effects will be felt." Federal emergency management officials warned that Florence -- while weakening slightly -- remains a "very dangerous storm" capable of wreaking havoc along a wide swathe of the coast.

"Just because the wind speed came down, the intensity of this storm came down to a Cat 2, please do not let your guard down," said Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Warning of looming storm surges of nine to 12 feet (2.7-3.6 meters), he urged residents to take the storm seriously no matter the category, saying "this is all about the water anyway."
"We live in a mobile home so we were just like 'No way,'" she said. "If we lose the house, oh well, we can get housing." "But we can't replace us so we decided to come here." - Monster storm surge expected -
Steve Goldstein of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Florence's forward motion had slowed overnight and it was not expected to make landfall in the Carolinas until "some time Friday afternoon, Friday evening or Saturday morning."