The southern coast of North Carolina saw calm waters and blue skies on the morning of September 12, giving little indication of the imminent arrival of Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm forecasted to make landfall the following morning.

This footage was shot at the town of Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Fort Fisher on Pleasure Island, a barrier island about 40 miles northeast of the state border with South Carolina. It was shared by Carolina Beach Today, a local news site that described the footage as showing the “calm before the storm.”

Carolina Beach is shown to be near-deserted, with windows boarded up to protect against the storm. The boarding on one building was spray-painted to read, “FLORENCE 2018.”

The National Weather Service issued strong warnings to residents of the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic states, saying the hurricane would be the “storm of a lifetime,” bringing damaging winds, life-threatening storm surges, and “catastrophic flooding.”

President Donald Trump declared states of emergency in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and evacuation orders were issued to around 1.7 million residents across the three states. Credit: Carolina Beach Today via Storyful