CAPE HATTERAS, N.C. – As Hurricane Dorian slogs up the Carolinas coast, forecasters are predicting high storm surges and drenching rains that could trigger widespread flooding and unleash environmental hazards.

Hurricane Dorian, back to a Category 3 storm, has begun raking the Southeast U.S. seaboard, threatening to inundate low-lying coasts from Georgia to southwest Virginia with a dangerous storm surge after its deadly mauling of the Bahamas.

The National Weather Service on Wednesday issued a Hurricane Warning for the entire Atlantic coast from northern Georgia to southern Virginia, predicting a “potentially life threatening storm surge” up to 8 feet around the North Carolina-South Carolina line. Some areas in the region expected to be impacted by Dorian are still recovering from Hurricane Florence, which caused widespread damage in September 2018. Problems then included flooded hog and chicken farms, inundated sewage treatment plants and breached dam at a power plant near a coal ash landfill.

Meteorologists predicted Dorian’s eye would skirt the coast, potentially making landfall before brushing past Cape Hatteras.