10 things you need to know today: September 14, 2018

Hurricane Florence lashes Carolina coast as it nears landfall, Trump says Democrats inflated Puerto Rico death toll to hurt him, and more

President Trump talks about Hurricane Florence
(Image credit: ZACH GIBSON/AFP/Getty Images)

1. Hurricane Florence hammers Carolina coastline as it nears landfall

Hurricane Florence battered the coast of the Carolinas with heavy rains, hurricane-strength winds, and a life-threatening storm surge early Friday as it approached landfall. Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, with its top sustained winds falling to 90 miles per hour, but forecasters warned it remained an extremely dangerous storm. It is moving slowly and threatening to hit some areas with three feet of rain and cause catastrophic flooding. "Don't focus on the category of the storm," the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned. "This will cause extremely dangerous flooding." A storm surge 10 feet above normal levels was reported in Morehead City, North Carolina. "There's already water (in the) bottom part of people's houses," Todd Willis of Kennel Beach, North Carolina, said Thursday night. "This is just the beginning."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.