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As Florence meanders, torrential rain, strong winds and flooding will take a heavy toll on the Carolinas this weekend.

AccuWeather meteorologists expect Florence to take a general westward drift from North Carolina to South Carolina into Sunday. This drift will be meandering at times with stalls, small loops and zigzags as the center wobbles along.

all at 7:15 a.m. EDT Friday near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.

While Florence’s intense winds will ease off, the storm’s proximity to the coast will allow the storm to tap rich moisture from the Atlantic Ocean and winds will be slow to diminish.

The slow forward motion will translate to not hours of heavy rain and strong winds but days of both in many cases. The worst part of Florence, inland flooding, may be yet to come.

Florence’s slow motion will pose great risk to lives and take a costly toll on property.

“AccuWeather estimates that Florence will cause $30-60 billion in economic impact and damage. To put this in context, we correctly predicted the full extent of Hurricane Harvey’s economic damage to be $190 billion last year. While we expect an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 40 inches of rain, extensive inland flooding and storm surge flooding from Florence, Hurricane Harvey unleashed more than 60 inches of rain locally centered around the United States’ fourth largest city, Houston, which has a population of 2.3 million,” AccuWeather Founder and President Dr. Joel N. Myers said.

“For further context, we accurately estimated the total economic impact from Hurricane Irma would be $100 billion. Additionally, Florence’s projected toll is less than Hurricane Sandy’s toll of $69 billion and Katrina’s cost of $161 billion,” Myers said.

“Other sources are predicting a financial toll for Florence of up to $170 billion, and we think that is extreme when looking at Florence’s track and impacts to people and their lives. Florence made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 1 storm Friday morning. Storms of this magnitude have struck the U.S. coastline in the past, in some cases causing $10 billion or less in total damage,” Myers said.