CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: The storm is here. Conditions are getting worse. Everyone should be out of the beach area. That was the word

yesterday from a county official in coastal North Carolina where hurricane force winds were expected to continue blowing into Friday morning. Welcome

to CNN 10 everyone. I`m Carl Azuz at the CNN Center. A few hundred miles east of here, Hurricane Dorian is battering the American coast. After

temporarily strengthening to Category 3 status, Dorian was once again a strong Category 2 storm last night with wind speeds of 110 miles per hour.

A hurricane warning extended as far north as the border between North Carolina and Virginia meaning people near those coasts could expect at

least 74 mile per hour hurricane force winds at some point.

In Charleston, South Carolina forecasters predicted a storm surge, a rise in sea water levels, of five to eight feet higher than where the tide

normally is and up to 15 inches of rain was expected there adding to the flooding. One side effect of hurricanes is that they can cause tornadoes

and those were reported in North and South Carolina as the storm stalked the shoreline. More than a million people in those two states were under

mandatory evacuation orders, which means that if they didn`t leave their homes when they were told to they could be on their own without emergency

responders available when the storm hit. Thursday afternoon officials estimated that around 260,000 customers were without electricity, most of

them in South Carolina. CNN`s Brian Todd found one of the reasons why he was in the historic city of Charleston when Hurricane Dorian`s eye was 45

miles away.