Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina at 7:15 a.m. ET September 14, 2018 as a Category 1 storm. The GOES East satellite captured this geocolor image of the massive storm at 7:45 a.m. ET, shortly after it moved ashore.
The National Hurricane Center reported Florence had sustained winds of 90 mph at landfall and was moving slowly westward at 6 mph. The storm was expected to slowly begin weakening during the day of September 14, but would continue to have significant impacts across the Carolinas.
Life-threatening storm surges and hurricane-force winds were expected to continue even as Florence moved inland, while very heavy rainfall, upwards of 20 inches in some locations, would cause catastrophic flooding across portions of North and South Carolina into the weekend.