The last transformer exploded before dawn, plunging the Comfort Suites hotel into total darkness. But when the dozens of guests woke to greet Hurricane Florence and its 90-mph gusts, Beth Bratz was already making coffee. As general manager, she could have closed the three-story motel on Market Street. But most of her staff lives in flat, low-lying neighborhoods, and she worried they wouldn’t last. So she took them in, along with three news crews and…

Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach around 7:15 a.m. Friday as a Category 1 storm. At a glance: Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach around 7:15 a.m. Friday as a Category 1 storm. More than 400,000 customers are without power. Jet Blue has canceled all of its flights today out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Other airlines are considering their schedules. A gas station in Wilmington collapsed due to heavy winds. 200 people have…

Hurricane Florence made landfall just before 7:30 Friday morning in Wrightsville Beach as Category 1 storm.The storm weakened to a Category 1 hurricane with maximum 90 mph winds early in the morning. Top 5 things to know today 1: Big Weather said Hurricane Florence is making its way toward South Carolina and will weaken later in the weekend. 2: Havey rains will be seen in much of the area today, mainly near Clinton and Fayetteville….

Thousands are without power in North Carolina as the outer bands of Hurricane Florence have reached the coast.As of 9:30 a.m., Friday, 485,143 people were without power. VIEW THE OUTAGE MAP BELOW. More outage information here Most of the outages are in Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus Craven, Duplin, New Hanover, Robeson, Sampson, Wake, Wayne, Pamlico, Pender and Onslow counties near the coast. WATCH: Useful tips if you lose power/Si no tiene electricidad después de…

Richard Neal, the owner of a bed-and-breakfast 32 miles off the coast of North Carolina in old Coast Guard tower, says he fielded several angry calls from veterans as Hurricane Florence approached. That’s because his B&B at Frying Pan Tower is also the home of one of the many Explore.org live cams that have been documenting the storm as it rumbled toward the Carolina coast. And also because, that live footage at times has shows…

Cajun Navy arrives in SC ahead of Florence Members of the United Cajun Navy start arriving at a staging area in Gaston, SC on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018. This is one of four staging areas they are setting up to assist in rescues as Hurricane Florence hits the Carolinas.

As heavy rains from Hurricane Florence loom, Lake Wylie is making room. The extra room in lakes all along the Catawba chain will be needed. Forecasts show the York County and surrounding areas getting up to a foot of rain. Other parts of the Carolinas have even more rain and flooding projected. At 8:50 a.m. Friday the lake sat a foot below its target elevation and four feet below its spilling point, or full pond….

The Latest on Hurricane Florence (all times local): 9:30 a.m. Wind speeds are kicking up far from the coast in central South Carolina as Hurricane Florence slowly makes its way along the coast. The National Weather Service reported wind gusts of up to 21 mph (34 kph) on Friday morning in Columbia. That’s about 220 miles (354 kilometers) from Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, where Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at 7:15 a.m….

The eastern North Carolina coastal town of New Bern is facing emergency flooding from Hurricane Florence. On Friday, its location on a peninsula between two rivers joined forces with Hurricane Florence’s east winds to create disaster in the Craven County town 115 miles southeast of the state capitol of Raleigh. The Neuse and Trent rivers rose 10 feet in a matter of hours, reported The Weather Channel, causing widespread damage and trapping hundreds of people…

More than 30 inches of rain has fallen near Atlantic Beach since Hurricane Florence began there, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Geological Survey. That would be the highest 24-hour rainfall in North Carolina history, far eclipsing a 22-inch storm in Mitchell County in the mountains in 1916, according to the N.C. Climate Office. The storm made landfall near Wrightsville Beach at 7:15 a.m. Friday, producing wind gusts of up to 95 to 105…