More Than 1.5 Million Ordered To Evacuate As Hurricane Florence Threatens Carolinas

More than 1.5 million people were ordered to evacuate their homes along the U.S. Atlantic coast as Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm and the most powerful to menace the Carolinas in nearly three decades, barreled in on Tuesday. Florence, packing winds of 140 miles per hour (220 kph), was expected to grow even stronger before making landfall on Thursday, mostly likely in southeastern North Carolina near the South Carolina border, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. “We are in the bull’s eye,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told reporters on Monday. Florence was expected to turn into “an extremely dangerous major hurricane” during Thursday night, the hurricane center said in a bulletin.