Your best bet right now is to book a hotel/motel inland that you can cancel free up to that day - make sure the area is not in a flood zone. If you wait, all motels/hotels will be booked (or the rates will be jacked up) and you'll be forced to find a shelter. If you have pets, there are very few shelters that allow them but if they do bring a cage (pets are kept in a separate room but you can visit and feed them and take them for walks, etc.).
Do what you can around your home if you fear flooding from the river. Put sandbags outside doors where water could seep in. For Sandy, we did this but the water came in underneath the house, filled in the crawl space and came into our first floor through the floorboards, looked like The Blob overtaking our floors. If you are on a slab, you may be able to stop water in your home from the sandbags.
Homes in SW Florida along the water were built like concrete fortresses. I remember last year with Irma, friends of ours have a home on the water in Marco Island and I was so worried it would flood and take the house away with a Cat 5 landing. No, the house stood still and their only cleanup was taking a few palms from their pool. A cat 3-5 in mid-atlantic would level an entire neighborhood with our stick homes.
Here are some helpful hints:
With Hurricane Florence ahead, here's how you can prepare
