(Myrtle Beach, S.C.) — Here are the latest developments:

• The center of the Hurricane Florence was about 170 miles southeast of Wilmington, N.C., at 8 a.m., with tropical-storm-force winds beginning to move onshore of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The National Hurricane Center said it was likely to maintain its intensity until the eye of the hurricane made landfall early Friday.

• The cloud coverage from the storm, an indication of its size, is as large as the Carolinas.

• The storm is forecast to crawl inland, drenching a wide area with extremely heavy rains — 20, 30 or even 40 inches of rainfall are predicted in some spots on the Carolina coast. Places as far inland as Charlotte, about 150 miles from the coast, could receive more than 10 inches of rain.

• The major power supplier for North and South Carolina, Duke Energy, warned that Hurricane Florence could knock out power for up to three million customers across the two states. It could take several weeks to restore electricity to everyone, the company said.

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