Florence Expected to Bring Heavy Rains to Upstate

Hurricane Florence is expected to pound the Carolinas and Virginia late Thursday and into Friday as an intense hurricane with life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and potentially catastrophic inland rainfall flooding as one of the strongest strikes on record for this part of the U.S. East Coast. Heavy rains are now being forecast for the Upstate.

A hurricane warning is now in effect from the South Santee River, South Carolina, northward to Duck, North Carolina. This includes Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, and most of the Outer Banks.

Hurricane watches remain posted north of Duck to the border between North Carolina and Virginia, as well as from Edisto Beach, South Carolina, northward to the South Santee River. This includes Charleston, South Carolina.

Hurricane watches also extend to some extent inland in the Carolinas, including such cities as Goldsboro, Kinston and Lumberton, North Carolina.

Tropical storm watches have been issued farther north from the border between North Carolina and Virginia to Cape Charles Lighthouse, Virginia, as well as for the Chesapeake Bay south of New Point Comfort, Virginia.