Gerst said Hurricane Florence is so enormous, with a width of more than 500 miles, that he "could only capture her with a super wide-angle lens."
Source: Twitter
When the space station flew over the storm's menacing eye, Gerst took this photo. "Get prepared on the East Coast," he warned.
Source: Twitter
"Ever stared down the gaping eye of a category 4 hurricane?" he said. "It's chilling, even from space."
Source: Twitter
This photo shows what it looks like deep inside the eye of Hurricane Florence, a place of relative calm for such storms.
Source: Twitter
NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold has also been following the giant storm. "The crew of @Space_Station is thinking of those who will be affected," he said on Wednesday.
Source: Twitter
This oblique view of the cyclone shows its outer bands just within reach of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina — near where the storm's powerful eye could make landfall.
Source: Twitter
Arnold has been following the storm's progress for days from his lofty perch. This picture show Hurricane Florence on Monday, September 10, 2018.
Source: Business Insider
Arnold and his crewmates have seen two other big storms brewing in the Atlantic Ocean, including Hurricane Helene (a Category-1 storm, shown here) and Hurricane Isaac (which has weakened into a tropical storm).
Sources: NHC (1, 2), Business Insider
NASA also recorded what it called "stark and sobering" video footage of the storm from the space station on Wednesday.
Watch the full clip of the space agency's flyover here.
