WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C.—After days of anticipation and evacuations, Hurricane Florence began battering the North Carolina coast while plunging tens of thousands of people into darkness.
Florence, a Category 1 storm, could potentially dump up to 40 inches of rain on parts of North Carolina while whipping up a damaging surge in coastal waterways. Though the storm’s winds weakened in the final approach, authorities warned the floodwaters still posed a severe risk.
“Please do not let your guard down,” said Brock Long, administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, speaking at a news conference. “This is a very dangerous storm.”
Early Friday, the National Hurricane Center said Florence was about to make landfall in North Carolina, with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles an hour.
Authorities are worried about flooding, both from rainfall and the storm surge. Some of the highest waters could come around the Pamlico Sound and the rivers that empty there.
“Do not focus on the wind category,” the National Hurricane Center tweeted Thursday. “Life-threatening storm surge flooding, catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding are still expected.”
Sustained hurricane-force winds began roaring over the North Carolina coast Thursday evening while rainfall totals grew rapidly, and the storm’s center was expected to approach the coast of North or South Carolina later in the night. The storm could make landfall in either state on Friday, the hurricane center said. Gusts along the North Carolina coast reached as high as 99 miles an hour late Thursday, the center said.
Officials from South Carolina to Virginia ordered roughly 1.5 million people to evacuate the coast ahead of the storm and urged many more to leave or head for higher ground. By Thursday evening, authorities in the Carolinas said more than 16,000 people were staying in shelters in the two states.
The ominous forecasts have disrupted businesses, causing auto makers and Boeing Co. to suspend production in area plants. Airlines canceled about 650 flights on Thursday to, from or within the U.S., according to aviation-data site FlightAware, and more than 700 flights were canceled for Friday. U.S. Fleet Forces Command ordered nearly 30 Navy vessels out to sea for safety.
More than 90,000 customers lacked power Thursday evening, largely in North Carolina, according to reports from local utilities. Standard & Poor’s estimated there were 16.7 million power customers in the storm’s potential path.
Howard Fowler, Duke Energy’s incident commander for Florence, said utility customers in Morehead City, New Bern and Wilmington were already experiencing outages Thursday afternoon. The utility estimates that as many as three million of its customers could lose power.
“This is a situation where it’s not days, but possibly weeks to get the lights back on,” he said. The company has called in 20,000 utility workers to help restore power.
Dominion Energy Inc., meanwhile, was mobilizing some 5,700 workers to deal with damage to its service territory in Virginia, as well as North Carolina, where it serves the Outer Banks.
Exelon Corp. says it had about 450 workers ready to deploy if more help was needed.
The total amount of property at risk from Florence, including homes, commercial buildings, industrial buildings and automobiles, is almost $2 trillion, according to risk-assessment agency Karen Clark & Company.
Some 3.6 million homes in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina lie in coastal areas, worth more than $1 trillion in total, according to real-estate-listing company Zillow Group. The value of real estate in those areas is up nearly $150 billion over the last five years, as development and home prices have boomed.
North Carolina and South Carolina in particular have seen an influx of retirees and young families from the Northeast and California seeking more affordable homes. The median home value in Charleston is nearly $176,000—up about 32% from five years ago but still well below the national median home value of $218,000, according to Zillow.
In Wrightsville Beach, located on a barrier island where people were ordered to evacuate, police blocked the bridge leading in Thursday morning. The town was largely boarded up and evacuated, and a mild breeze rippled the water.
Local businesses have been shut down for the better part of two days, with gas pumps covered in plastic and restaurant and store windows boarded up. Officials loaded the last bus to out-of-town shelters late Wednesday, transporting folks nearly four hours away to a coliseum in Winston-Salem.
Milton Warwick, 83 years old, first tried to leave nearby Carolina Beach and stay with family 100 miles away in Smithfield, then 200 miles in Greensboro. But he was worried about the storm’s large size and forecasts for widespread flooding risk, and decided instead to stay at a Wilmington hotel five miles inland.
After Mr. Warwick lost his home in 1996 to Hurricane Fran, he rebuilt 150 yards away from the Intracoastal Waterway, with the help of a 30-year mortgage from FEMA. He put his new mobile home on a 60-inch foundation and bought flood insurance for $2,000 a year.
“We prepared for a storm, but not one like this,” said Mr. Warwick, a retired brick mason. He said he expects to lose his home again. “I’d have to start over, but what else can I do?”
Corrections & Amplifications The value of coastal homes in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina has risen by $150 billion over the last five years. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it has risen by $150 million. (Sept. 14)
Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com and Jon Kamp at jon.kamp@wsj.com
