Hurricane Florence

It has caused catastrophic flooding since arriving as a category one hurricane on Friday.

Some towns have already seen 2ft (60cm) of rain in two days, with totals forecast to top 3.5ft (1m) in places.

It is feared that more communities could become deluged as the storm crawls west at only 2mph (3km/h).

"This system is unloading epic amounts of rainfall, in some places measured in feet and not inches," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on Saturday.

It has been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm but continues to soak the East Coast area with rain, downing trees and damaging homes.

It is slowly grinding over the eastern states, with winds of 65mph (105km/h).

Five deaths have been linked to the storm and thousands of people have been staying in emergency shelters.

Evacuation warnings were issued for 1.7 million people in the region.

Officials warn of life-threatening storm surges in both North and South Carolina as the hurricane moves towards land with maximum sustained wind speeds of 100mph (155 km/h).

More than 100,000 homes are already without power as weather conditions begin to worsen.

Officials have warned the storm has the potential to kill "a lot of people" amid risks of "catastrophic" flooding.

More than a million people along the coastlines of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia have been ordered to evacuate.

While people on the ground are preparing for floods, high winds and surging waves, the satellites and astronauts in orbit are looking down on the storm from above, and the views are startling.

NASA released a video of the hurricane on Monday as captured by cameras mounted outside the International Space Station.

The ISS was flying 255 miles (410 kilometers) above the storm when it got the footage, which NASA describes as "dramatic."