Floyd County is on a flash flood watch lfrom 8 a.m. Saturday to midnight Monday as part of Hurricane Florence, which is drenching North and South Carolina with heavy rains, 90 mph winds and flooding.

The National Weather Service said the eye of Florence lies just east of Wilmington, NC, at 5 a.m. today as now a category one hurricane and into South Carolina close to midnight before turning northwestward as a tropical storm and heaving for Asheville.

If Florence says on the current projected course, it will cross the extreme western point of Virginia west of Bristol and into Kentucky and up to West Virginia on Monday.

Some 321,692 households in North Carolina lost power, the state’s emergency management department reports with flash flood warnings throughout the southeastern part of the state.

The flash flood watch for Virginia includes Floyd, Montgomery, Pulaski, Franklin, Henry, Roanoke, Smyth and Wythe counties, says the Blacksburg office of the National Weather Service.

NWS says Floyd could receive a few showers starting after 1 p.m. Friday and continue off and on throughout the day and night with light rain most of Saturday.

Floyd County Emergency Services Coordinator Kevin Sowers urges Floyd County residents to stay on alert as the the route for Florence could shift as the storm meanders through the Carolinas Friday.

Updated at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.