Current plans call for a pre-planned crew and inmates at MacDougall Correctional Institution to stay put as Hurricane Florence - expected to gain strength Wednesday night- heads right for them. Officials there started evacuating hundreds of inmates from state prisons and local jails on Monday. Department of Public Safety spokesman Jerry Higgins told The Charlotte Observer that hundreds of state inmates are being moved to larger facilities. With less than 48 hours before being expected to make landfall, Hurricane Florence was downgraded to a Category 3 storm Wednesday afternoon. “This will likely be the storm of a lifetime for portions of the Carolina coast,” the National Weather Service said.

Source: Fox News September 12, 2018 20:38 UTC