Whereever you plan to be tonight, get there by 8 p.m.

That was the advice Monday from Steven Still, New Hanover County Emergency Management director, as Tropical Storm Isaias advances toward the Cape Fear region.

The storm is expected to move through the area late Monday, with tropical force winds picking up through the evening hours, according to the National Weather Service's Wilmington office. The coastal area is under a hurricane warning, and the storm is forecasted to strengthen to a hurricane before making landfall.

Still said the storm is not expected to cause the level of heavy rainfall that previous damaging hurricanes such as Hurricane Florence had on the area, though he warned there are still parts of the county that might see some flooding. He said emergency officials would keep an eye on heavy winds, including the potential for power outages and tornadoes.

(Twitter updates from New Hanover County Emergency Management)

This year's hurricane season, which started June 1, takes places against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Still said has affected emergency planning in areas ranging from how shelters would run to how many people would fit on buses in the case of evacutions.

For more on that and other preparations ahead of Isaias, watch the full conversation with Still on the Business Journal's BizTalk.