RALEIGH, N. C. (AP) – The Latest on Hurricane Florence (all times local): 6:45 p.m. Airlines are beginning to cancel flights ahead of Hurricane…
RALEIGH, N. C. (AP) – The Latest on Hurricane Florence (all times local):
6:45 p.m.
Airlines are beginning to cancel flights ahead of Hurricane Florence making landfall later this week.
And Charleston International Airport in South Carolina is tweeting that it expects runways to close by midnight Wednesday as it monitors Hurricane Florence.
Southwest Airlines‘ website showed that it had canceled at least a half-dozen flights to and from Charleston on Tuesday. The airline didn’t immediately comment.
The tracking service FlightAware.com showed that by late Tuesday afternoon, American had canceled more than 50 American Eagle regional flights both Wednesday and Thursday. It wasn’t clear if all were due to Florence, however.
American said the storm was responsible for cancellations to and from the North Carolina cities of Fayetteville, Greenville, Jacksonville, New Bern and Wilmington.
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6:45 p.m.
North Carolina is evacuating prisoners and staff from low- and medium-security prisons that lie in the path of Hurricane Florence over concerns they won’t be able to withstand the storm.
Department of corrections spokesman Jerry Higgins on Tuesday confirmed „several hundred“ prisoners from minimum- and medium-custody facilities are being transferred to other facilities across the state. The move started Monday and will continue into the week.
Higgins says the department of corrections can’t say exactly which facilities are being evacuated. They won’t disclose where or exactly how many prisoners are being moved until they have been relocated.
North Carolina has maximum-security prisons in the path of Hurricane Florence, but those facilities are not being evacuated. Higgins says those structures are more capable of withstanding the storm than minimum- and medium-custody facilities.
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6:30 p.m.
There are two big fuel pipelines in the path of Hurricane Florence, but analysts think the storm is unlikely to disrupt the flow of gasoline or other products.
Analysts for S&P Global Platts say it’s possible, „though less likely,“ that the Colonial and Plantation pipelines could be hurt by power outages or damage to pump stations.
The pipelines carry fuels from the Gulf Coast to much of the eastern U. S. They run well inland through South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, and they are underground.
Analysts expect a temporary boost in gasoline demand as people flee from Florence, followed by weaker demand during and immediately after the storm.
But it is highly unlikely to be anything like Hurricane Harvey, which last year hit Houston, the heart of the U. S. energy industry. Flooding closed down many refineries along the Texas and Louisiana coasts, causing a temporary spike in gasoline prices.
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6:30 p.m.
The commander of Camp Lejeune and all Marine installations on the East Coast says there is no mandatory evacuation due to the approaching hurricane.
Brigadier General Julian D. Alford said in a message Tuesday that those who remain on the bases will have food, water and protection from the storm.
Spokesman Nat Fahy says the base is the safest place for residents to be if they haven’t already evacuated.
Fahy says shelters on the base are expected to open early Wednesday, and there will be a full complement of resources for those sheltering in place.
Of the roughly 40,000 active duty troops, about three-quarters live off the base. Thousands of non-essential forces have evacuated with their families.
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6:30 p.m.
People aren’t the only ones evacuating to get out of the path of Hurricane Florence.
Eight dogs and 18 cats from a shelter in Norfolk, Virginia, have been brought to Washington, D. C., to make room for pets expected to be displaced by the hurricane.
The animals arrived Tuesday afternoon at one of two D. C. shelters run by the Humane Rescue Alliance. The dogs and cats are expected to be available for adoption within the next few days. They include tabby cats, hound mixes and Chihuahua mixes.
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6:10 p.m.
Kentucky and West Virginia are offering discounted rates on lodging at their state parks for people seeking shelter from Hurricane Florence.
The Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet said the discounted nightly rate for lodge rooms is $49.95 for residents of any East Coast state seeking shelter from the hurricane. One-bedroom cottages are $69.95, and two bedrooms are $79.95. The rates are good until Sept. 30.
In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice said state parks will offer a 55 percent discount on rooms, cabins and campsites through Tuesday.
West Virginia’s Agriculture Department also said it will waive entry requirements for animals taken to West Virginia because of the hurricane. Also, the State Fair of West Virginia is offering temporary shelter for up to 100 horses.
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5:10 p.m.
Forecasters have issued a hurricane warning for parts of the Carolinas as Hurricane Florence barrels toward land.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday that a warning had been issued from South Santee River, South Carolina, to Duck, North Carolina, and the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.
A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued from north of the North Carolina-Virginia border to Cape Charles Light, Virginia, and for the Chesapeake Bay south of New Point Comfort.
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Florence was centered 785 miles (1,260 kms) southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, moving west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph).
It is a potentially catastrophic Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph). It is expected to keep drawing energy from the warm water and intensify to near Category 5, with winds of 157 mph (253 kph) or higher.
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4:40 p.m.
Forecasters at the University of Michigan predict that 2.4 million people will lose power from Hurricane Florence and some outages could be prolonged.
That’s about one-fourth the number who suffered outages from Hurricane Sandy, which hit a more populated area around New Jersey in 2012.
Seth Guikema is an associate professor of engineering at Michigan. He says outages could be more widespread if Florence veers north or stalls, leading to flooding.
The estimate is based on the National Hurricane Center’s forecast for Florence’s path and wind speeds.
Duke Energy spokeswoman Grace Rountree says the utility doesn’t forecast outages, but is „anticipating significant widespread outages from a storm of this magnitude.“
She says the company is bringing in up to 2,000 workers from Florida and the Midwest to augment its 4,600 workers in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Duke has 4 million customers in the Carolinas.
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4:40 p.m.
Officials are advising South Carolina residents to get their well water tested for bacteria after Hurricane Florence hits.
The Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service said in a news release Tuesday that if the wells are submerged in water even temporarily, the water won’t be usable to drink, cook or brush teeth with until it is tested and found suitable.
Clemson says the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control can test private drinking well water for bacterial contamination.
Gov. Henry McMaster has ordered residents along much of South Carolina’s coast to evacuate as the powerful storm approaches the Carolinas‘ coastline.
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4:40 p.m.
North Carolina officials say they are suspending ferry service from one of the Outer Banks islands beginning Wednesday.
A news release from the Ferry Division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation said Tuesday that service from Ocracoke Island will end with a 9:30 a.m. run to Swan Quarter on the mainland.
Ocracoke is at the southern end of the state’s Outer Banks, and is accessible only by ferry.
Ferry officials say that as of Tuesday afternoon, they had transported 1,582 people evacuating the islands.
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4:40 p.m.
As the Carolinas brace for the impact of extremely dangerous Florence toward the end of the week, other states are sending resources.
Southern California firefighting teams specializing in urban-search and swift-water rescue, and a search-and-rescue team from Tennessee are being deployed to Virginia ahead of Florence’s arrival.
Louisiana is sending nearly 100 emergency personnel to the Carolinas. The Louisiana fire marshal’s office is sending a water-rescue team and an urban search-and-rescue team to South Carolina, along with other emergency workers.
More than three dozen members of a Nebraska search-and-rescue team left Tuesday morning for Raleigh, North Carolina. The deployed members include two K-9 search units.
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4:15 p.m.
Officials in West Virginia towns inundated by a series of thunderstorms two years ago are monitoring the track of Hurricane Florence.
National Weather Service guidance says the currently projected scenario from Florence „could result in catastrophic flooding rainfall“ across the mountains of western North Carolina, western Virginia, and eastern West Virginia late this week.
The June 2016 storms pelted a wide swath of West Virginia. Nine inches (23 centimeters) of rain fell in 36 hours in some areas, leaving 23 dead statewide and destroying thousands of homes, businesses and infrastructure.
Fifteen people died in Greenbrier County alone in 2016. The communities of Rainelle and White Sulphur Springs saw significant property damage, including at the posh Greenbrier resort.
Rainelle Police Chief J. P. Stevens said people there are rightfully wary of Florence.
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3:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump says the safety of the American people is his „absolute highest priority“ as Hurricane Florence takes aim at portions of the East Coast.
Trump was being briefed by the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
He says the federal government is ready to respond to the Category 4 storm.
FEMA administrator Brock Long is warning that the hurricane will be a „devastating event“ and urging Americans to evacuate if they’ve been asked to leave their homes. He says electric power could be out for weeks.
Trump has declared states of emergency for North and South Carolina and Virginia, and canceled campaign events Thursday and Friday in anticipation of the storm.
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3:15 p.m.
President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency in Virginia as Hurricane Florence approaches.
Trump announced the action Tuesday. It comes after he approved a similar declaration for North and South Carolina, which are currently in the bull’s-eye of the powerful Category 4 storm. The action frees up federal funds and resources.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center forecasts as much as 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain, if not more, for parts of North Carolina. Rain could reach as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) elsewhere in North Carolina, Virginia, parts of Maryland and Washington, D. C.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, but no federal emergency has been declared in the nation’s capital.
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3:10 p.m.
Gas supplies are expected to tighten in the Carolinas as a powerful hurricane heads toward the Atlantic coast.
AAA Carolinas spokeswoman Tiffany Wright says some gas stations in North and South Carolina are running short on fuel as Hurricane Florence approaches the coast. Wright says supplies are often stretched in the run-up to a storm, as many people fill up out of fear stations will run out.
Wright says prices might go up in some places but that any spike shouldn’t last long. Price gouging laws have gone into effect in North and South Carolina, and residents are urged to report suspected instances to attorneys general in both states.
The storm could cause fuel deliveries to be halted temporarily. But unlike last year’s Hurricane Harvey, Wright says crude processing shouldn’t be effected because no refineries are in Florence’s path.
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3:40 p.m.
Recruits are returning to the Marine Corps‘ largest East Coast training installation after South Carolina’s governor lifted an evacuation order ahead of Hurricane Florence.
Marines currently in training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island had begun departing the installation on Tuesday for another base in Albany, Georgia.
But McMaster lifted the evacuation for Beaufort County where the island is located and other counties after noting that the powerful hurricane’s projected path has shifted to the north.
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2:30 p.m.
Some residents in the Outer Banks have decided to ignore a mandatory evacuation order.
Liz Browning Fox in the village of Buxton is one of them. The 65-year-old Fox says her 88-year-old mother has refused to evacuate her house next door so she’s going to stay with her.
She says her brother who lives nearby is also going to stay.
Fox says she feels safe in her home, but realizes that if she and her mother get in trouble during the storm, no first-responders are going to arrive to help them. She says anyone who plans to stay „needs to be pretty well set up.“
The longtime resident is a volunteer for the community radio station, Radio Hatteras. She says she will help broadcast emergency messages during the storm.
Despite her resolve to stay, Fox admits she woke up in the pre-dawn hours asking herself why she had decided to stay.
She says what she most fears are the tornadoes that often develop along with hurricanes. Those, she says, „can tear through anything.“
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2 p.m.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is calling Hurricane Florence a „monster“ that residents should not try to ride out in their homes.
At a news conference Tuesday, Cooper had a stern warning for coastal residents who have stayed in their homes during previous hurricanes including Fran in 1996, Floyd in 1999 and Matthew in 2016: This one is different.
Cooper told residents not to „bet your life on riding out a monster.“
To reinforce this, Cooper announced he had issued what he called the first-of-its-kind mandatory evacuation order for North Carolina’s fragile barrier islands from one end of the coast to the other. Typically local governments in North Carolina make the call on evacuations. Some, including those at the Outer Banks, have already issued orders for the island residents to leave.
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2 p.m.
Hurricane Florence is getting bigger as it targets the East Coast.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the hurricane stretched 340 miles (547 kilometers) across as of Tuesday afternoon.
