"This One Is Different"

(click map to enlarge)

Hurricane Florence is taking aim at the Carolina coast and is expected to make landfall Thursday night - Friday morning with a historic storm surge and winds topping 140 mph. Once the storm moves inland, it's expected to stall over large parts of North and South Carolina and northern Georgia, with current models showing southern Virginia being spared the brunt of the hurricane, but still facing record rainfall. The southern Appalachians are bracing for a foot or more of rain that will overflow rivers and lakes. The Associated Press reports:

"Florence is so wide that a life-threatening storm surge was being pushed 300 miles (485 kilometers) ahead of its eye, and so wet that a swath from South Carolina to Ohio and Pennsylvania could get deluged.

People across the region rushed to buy bottled water and other supplies, board up their homes, pull their boats out of the water and get out of town.

Long lines formed at service stations, and some started running out of gas as far west as Raleigh, with bright yellow bags, signs or rags placed over the pumps to show they were out of order. Some store shelves were picked clean.

'There’s no water. There’s no juices. There’s no canned goods,' Kristin Harrington said as she shopped at a Walmart in Wilmington [NC]. "

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper was blunt:

“The waves and the wind this storm may bring is nothing like you’ve ever seen. Even if you’ve ridden out storms before, this one is different. Don’t bet your life on riding out a monster."

To our readers in the areas affected, please heed the evacuation notices and don't risk your life; possessions can be replaced, lives can't. Here's the link to the U.S. Weather Service's Hurricane Florence website for updates.