‘Florence’ weakens, lashes US East Coast

WILMINGTON, United States: The US east coast girded for a battering from Hurricane Florence late on Thursday (Friday in Manila) as the monster storm’s outer edge began lashing the Carolinas with heavy wind and rain, which forecasters warned could trigger life-threatening floods even as it further weakened.

In its 0300 GMT advisory, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the maximum sustained winds of Florence were 150 kilometers per hour, dropping it to the weakest of five categories on the Saffir-Simpson scale.