US beach town braces for powerful Hurricane Florence

Satellite image shows Hurricane Florence off the US east coast in the Atantic Ocean.

Wooden planks boarding up windows, sandbags lining the edge of the placid-for-now ocean: locals of one seaside resort in North Carolina are maintaining relative calm as they gird for Hurricane Florence - an attitude somewhat masking their anxiety, as the potentially catastrophic storm closes in on them. 
As skies fluctuated Tuesday between heavy showers and occasional bright spots, a certain sunny outlook swaddled Wrightsville Beach, despite the looming arrival of Florence's heavy winds and inundating rains that has prompted widespread evacuations along the southeastern US coast.
Kevin Goricki, who came to visit the normally idyllic area - known as the backdrop for the hit 2000s-era series "Dawson's Creek" - still intends to enjoy the beach with his family.
 The 29-year-old said he already went through 2011's Hurricane Irene, and cited flooding as the worst threat. He doesn't fear for his family's safety, though, saying they will hunker down at his sister's third-floor home.
"I must confess I like the atmosphere around it," he said, looking out over the Atlantic.
But others are more wary: Mexican restaurant Tower Seven has closed and barricaded its doors to customers since Tuesday, hanging a sign on the door warning people to "be safe."
Jim Wenning, a regular there, arrived at the scene to help the boss try "to avoid additional damage."
"We haven't see a storm like this since the 1950s," said the construction worker, drill in hand. "It could be chaotic around here for a week or so."
He lives a bit further inland, and has yet to decide whether he will evacuate.
"I'll leave if the winds are still above 130 mph, because my house hasn't been built to resist more," he said. "I'll make a last minute decision." 
But Greg Cook and his girlfriend, who have called Wrightsville Beach home for seven years, chose to move everything - mattresses, lamps, dressers, a grill - before Florence's arrival.
"We've already been flooded three times, but it should be a completely different story this time around," he said. "People usually say 'it's ok, the hurricane will turn North, we'll be fine.'"
"But this time everybody thinks it will really happen - and that it will be bad."
Those intending to leave face a race against the clock to flee the island town just east of the port city Wilmington, as drawbridge access to it will be raised Wednesday evening.
Water and electricity will also be cut - but even that's not enough to deter some from staying at all costs.
"Our neighbor thinks he's safe on the first floor," Cook said. "We are leaving him our generator, but I don't think it's particularly smart of him."
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Washington's mayor on Tuesday declared a state of emergency as Hurricane Florence bears down on the US East Coast, threatening torrential rain and flooding in the capital region.
Muriel Bowser told a news conference that the emergency was "effective immediately" and that the measure "ensures that we will have the resources we need to prepare for Florence."
More than a million coastal residents have been ordered to leave their homes ahead of the storm's projected arrival on Thursday, with emergencies already declared in the states of North and South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
Florence, a Category 1 hurricane, continued to strengthen in the central Atlantic and was expected to become a major hurricane by Monday night, the US National Hurricane Center said in its advisory on Sunday.
The hurricane was located about 560 miles (905 kilometers) northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, packing maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour (150 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said.
Florence was expected to remain an extremely dangerous, major hurricane and was forecast to approach the southeastern coast of the United States on Thursday, the NHC added.