Washington, September 14: Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina at 7:15 am (local time) on Friday. According to a report published in Washington Post, after Friday’s torrential rain, multi-foot storm surge and widespread power outages, Florence will continue to batter the region through early next week.

The National Weather Service claimed that nearly five million people would witness at least 10 inches of rainfall. The south-eastern part of North Carolina is likely to be severely affected by the storm which will gradually drift towards the northeast of South Carolina.

National Hurricane Centre giving updates about the hurricane:

As per an AFP report, Forecasters warned of catastrophic flooding and other mayhem from the monster storm, which is only Category 1 but physically sprawling and dangerous. The port city of Wilmington of North Carolina woke Friday to the sound of exploding electrical transformers with strong gusts throwing street signs and other debris as well as water in all directions.

The centre of the storm is likely to drift back to the ocean as large part of the storm will remain over water.  National Weather Service has predicted that on Saturday winds will back off to 25 to 35 mph with stronger gusts, while on Sunday, winds are likely to fall below 20 mph. More than 1,300 flights have been cancelled due to the storm.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 14, 2018 07:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).