Forecasters on Sunday upgraded Tropical Storm Florence to a hurricane, saying it was strengthening and taking aim at North and South Carolina, where it could make landfall by the end of the week. “We expect a rapid intensification of Florence tomorrow,” Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center, said on Sunday. “We expect it to be a major hurricane when it makes landfall by Thursday night or early Friday.”By Monday, Florence was expected to intensify to a Category 3 hurricane, with winds of 111 to 130 miles per hour, up from a Category 1 on Sunday. On Sunday evening, the center said Florence would “remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane through Thursday.”Mr. Feltgen cautioned that heavy rains could prove more damaging than the high winds. He said Florence could be a “major event,” affecting all of South Carolina in particular, not just its coast, with “historic freshwater rainfall.”

Source: New York Times September 09, 2018 21:00 UTC