Hurricane Florence creeps toward U.S. East Coast

People put plywood up on the windows of a theatre before the arrival of Hurricane Florence in Greenville, North Carolina, U.S., September 12, 2018. [File, Reuters]

An outsized Hurricane Florence early on Thursday crept closer to the U.S. East Coast, packing tropical storm-force winds across hundreds of miles that threaten the region with potentially catastrophic flooding and torrential rain.

The center of Florence, no longer classified as a major hurricane but still posing a grave threat to life and property, is expected to strike North Carolina’s southern coast on Friday, then drift southwest before moving inland on Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.