While Hurricane Florence has the potential to impact Western NC, history shows it is the storms that come up from the Gulf of Mexico that tend to impact us more than those that hit the east coast. Below are the storm paths of the 2 most destructive Hurricanes in the last 30 years, Opal in 1995 and Ivan in 2004. You can see both came up the Gulf.
Above: Hurricane Opal path in 1995.
Above: Hurricane Ivan Path in 2004