Florence, now a tropical storm, claims multiple lives

Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina Friday morning as a Category 1 storm and weakened to a tropical storm later in the day. Here's what we know.

• The first fatalities of the storm were reported Friday afternoon. A mother and infant were killed when a tree fell on their house in Wilmington, N.C., police said. Wind gusts up to 105 mph had been reported in Wilmington.

A woman in Pender County, N.C., also died of a heart attack after rescue crews couldn't reach her because of trees blocking the road, authorities said. In Lenoir County, a man died when he was electrocuted while trying to connect extension cords outside in the rain to power a generator, and another person died after being blown down by the wind while checking on his hunting dogs, according to CBS, which cited authorities there.

• Florence made landfall at 7:15 a.m. near Wrightsville Beach, N.C., with estimated maximum winds of 90 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported. It dropped to tropical storm status later in the day with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

• Flooding is occurring and hundreds of thousands of utility customers are reported to be without power in the Carolinas. The National Hurricane Center said in a 1 p.m. update that 20.37 inches of rain has fallen in and around Oriental, N.C., along the Neuse River on the southwestern end of the Pamlico Sound separating the Outer Banks from the mainland.

• In New Bern, N.C., also on the Neuse River, flooding stranded about 150 people who needed to be rescued, officials reported.

• Significant flooding is expected through the weekend. One high-resolution model suggests that up to 50 inches of rain could fall in the area where Florence made landfall by Sunday, according to the Washington Post.

• The hurricane is generating swells along the East Coast, including the Jersey Shore, where the National Weather Service has issued alerts for high surf and riptides.

• Florence is not expected to bring rain and wind to the Philadelphia region this weekend — the forecast calls for partly or mostly sunny skies Saturday and Sunday — but the remnants of the storm could cause give the area rain in the early-to-middle part of next week.