Hurricane Ian is projected to reach the coast of South Carolina later on Friday, move over the east of the state and then travel up to North Carolina.
According to the National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory Ian is currently about 105 miles southeast of Charleston, the largest city in South Carolina with some 800,000 people.
Ian’s maximum sustained winds have remained around 85 mph (140kmph) and NHC forecasts say winds of tropical storm intensity are ongoing across much of the coast of the Carolinas.
Life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions are expected in the region by afternoon.
Ian is however expected to rapidly weaken after it makes landfall, become a so-called extratropical low – a cyclone with a low pressure centre – by the time it moves over North Carolina and dissipate by Saturday night.
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