FEMA Administrator Brock Long Tuesday urged people in the path of Hurricane Florence to heed warnings and evacuate away from the powerful storm, including in Wilmington, North Carolina, which is not yet under a mandatory evacuation order, even though the city is listed as a potential landfall spot.
"If I remember correctly, in North Carolina local jurisdictions are allowed to issue varying degrees of evacuation," Long told CNN's "New Day," while in South Carolina, where mandatory evacuation orders have been issued, only the governor has the authority to make that declaration.
"The bottom line is, I'm asking people to heed all the warnings that are put forward," said Long, adding the storm could make landfall as a category four or five storm. Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for North Carolina's Outer Banks, as well as the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, reports ABC affiliate WTVD.
The ocean will be rising upwards of 12 feet along the Carolina coast, added Long, and that does not include waves on top of that.
"Then, once the system makes landfall, here, again, storm surge has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people," said Long.
"We always plan one category higher than what's anticipated, and the main primary driver of the evacuations is coastal storm surge, flood inundation, wind-driven water coming up on shore," said Long.
Long said he and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, plan to brief President Donald Trump about the emergency Tuesday afternoon.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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