President Donald Trump appeared to raise the level of alarm over the coming Hurricane Florence on Twitter on Thursday by saying the storm had grown "even larger and more powerful."

But the storm had been downgraded 2 categories since Wednesday.

Though the storm has expanded in area and still poses a serious threat of flooding, its windspeeds have reduced.

Trump prides himself on his administration's response to hurricanes, despite 2,975 dying from storms Puerto Rico in 2017.

President Donald Trump appeared to raise the level of alarm over the coming Hurricane Florence on Twitter on Thursda, saying the storm had gotten "even larger and more powerful" despite it being downgraded from a category 4 to a category 2 storm.

Trump on Wednesday warned US citizens in the path of Florence to evacuate immediately. Overnight the National Hurricane Center downgraded the storm based on deteriorating wind speeds, which are now around 110mph rather than previous highs of 130mph.

However, the National Hurricane Center tweeted not to focus on the wind speeds. "Life-threatening storm surge flooding, catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding are still expected," it said.

Experts have said the the rain and flood waters from Florence, rather than its speed, are the real source of danger.

While the storm has expanded in area, and still holds a tremendous amount of water capable of flooding and doing damage, it is less powerful than it was on Wednesday.

The latest track of the storm suggests that it will strike close to the North Carolina-South Carolina border before heading further inland. As of 8 a.m. Thursday, the storm was 170 miles from the North Carolina shore. 10 million people live in the storm's path.

Trump has celebrated his administration's response to hurricanes, including the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico and killed 2,975 people there.