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Hurricane Florence: Forecasters Warn of Harvey-Like Rain From Category 4 Storm

Storm could hit as early as Thursday.

Forecasters overnight upped their warning of increasing risk of “life-threatening impacts” and heavy, prolonged rain from Hurricane Florence—the first major storm of the 2018 season—which is expected to strike North Carolina and Virginia as early as Thursday. Early Monday, forecasters predicted Florence will become a Category 4 hurricane before hitting the southern Eastern Seaboard, with meteorologists particularly concerned the storm could slow before making landfall and then stall offshore, bringing dangerous, Hurricane Harvey-like amounts of rain and winds as high as 140 miles per hour. Officials warned residents from South Carolina to the Mid-Atlantic to monitor the storm and have their hurricane plans in place. North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia have already declared a state of emergency. Last August, Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 20 inches of rain on Houston and southeast Texas in 24 hours, which weather officials then called “beyond anything experienced.”