He urged residents to prepare now, calling the storm “a monster,” and warned that people should not count on being able to ride it out.

Power in some areas is likely to be out for several days, and storm surge is expected to flood widespread areas, he said, including inland regions of the state. Forecasts predict as much as 20 inches of rain in some places.

“Wherever you are in North Carolina, get ready for Florence now,” Governor Cooper said. “It is big and it is vicious.”

In South Carolina, the authorities reversed the lanes of two major divided highways to carry traffic away from the coast. However, on Tuesday Gov. Henry McMaster rescinded his evacuation order for the three southernmost coastal counties, responding to updated forecasts of the storm’s likely path.

‘We’re staying ’til they make us leave’

On any normal late-summer morning, the High Tide Lounge would be crowded with fishermen downing Budweisers and telling the usual lies. But on Tuesday, the shorefront watering hole in Carolina Beach, N.C., was deserted and locked up tight, and the attached pier was empty. Most of the fishermen and tourists had cleared out.

Some homeowners on the island were nailing plywood over windows and cramming pickup trucks with household possessions for the trip inland, heeding a mandatory evacuation order. But others were hauling in porch furniture, stocking up on food and water, and planning to ride out Hurricane Florence on the narrow barrier island south of Wilmington.

The storm, still hundreds of miles offshore, was already churning up the surf outside the High Tide Lounge, where Jim Hempfling stood all alone, trying to squeeze in just a little more of his vacation. He cast a line into the rising waves.