While there is still a lot of ocean batween Florence and the U.S. Atlantic coast, Florence is a rather large storm, with tropical storm winds extending outward up to 115 miles from the center. Folks should not wait until the last minute to learn they need to bug out.
I’m across the water from Norfolk; some of the precipitation models show this area getting as much rain as they will in SE North Carolina, where the storm makes landfall. Minimum of eight inches, and that is a very conservative estimate. Not to mention the fact that we’ve had a very wet summer; ground is saturated, and with more heavy rain and wind on the way, a lot of trees may be coming down.