carolina right now with sheets of rain, surging waves, 90 mile an hour waves possible, twisters even, the storm is only expected to get stronger as we approach the 4th of july and the storm c. i'm jake tapper in washington dc. >> and good evening, i'm brooke baldwin tonight here in atlanta. we're here to bring you the very latest on these two big breaking stories today. >> first, hurricane arthur, of course, whipping the beaches of the carolinas right now very close to making a direct hit with the eye wall of the storm. new tornado warnings in three eastern north carolina counties now. reporters are scattered along the coast ready to bring every angel. we have rene marsh, joe jones in kill devil hills in the northern part of the coastline, chad

myers, of course in the cnn severe weather center. we'll get the latest from all of them as the storm barrels north but of course, brooke. >> the other big story tonight, tapper, that staggering, staggering story. the details from the courtroom in georgia during the hearing. this is a probable cause hearing for the father. here he is, the father of this 22 month old toddler cooper died a couple weeks ago in the sweltering hot suv in a hot georgia summer day. the father is justin ross harris. judge denied bond today and ruled he will indeed stand trial on felony murder charges for leaving his 22 month old in that car, 90 something degree day in georgia in june. this lead police detective testified today that harris seated here in that orange jump suit was sexting with several women, one of whom was 17 years of age and not only that, by the way, this father was sending nude photos of himself to these

women the day his son died. also, we learned today that there is not just one but two life insurance policies that he had taken out on his son. we'll have much more on the case, the new details coming up. horrendous, just watching this, jake tapper leaves you speechless. >> crazy and you and i were talking about this a week ago. the sympathies of the country were with this family. >> totally. >> because 35 to 40 kids in the united states every year die this way. it's obviously a tragedy but now the shocking details from this hearing earlier today. but right now let's turn back to the hurricane if we can. i want to bring in chad myers in the cnn severe weather center in atlanta and rene marsh standing on the shoreline in atlantic beach. rene, you've been there all day, describe the conditions right now. >> reporter: well, i can tell you, jake, right now at this point we're getting a little bit of rain. the wind is starting to pick up but i can tell you that this

certainly goes in rounds here and we're in that round where we are getting some precipitation but take a look. i want you to see how rough the surf is out here. the good thing is we're not seeing anyone in the water and that's the good thing because that's the warning that they have been giving all day and even in the days leading up to this. we can tell you there were ferries taking people to those islands, the barrier islands on to higher ground. we know that those ferries are no longer operating. we are, though, expecting to hear from the governor in about another hour or so, and another thing we want to point out to people is just in about two hours from now, jake, we expect that those curfews will begin kicking in, but here, what we're noticing is a mild wind and of course, that always comes in rounds here and rough surf but of course, as the time goes on and as it gets a little later, we expect things to deteriorate

more, jake. >> do you have a question you want to ask remembne. >> i have an observation for rene. there is an awful lot of weather coming in in the next 15 to 20 minutes, you're going to see the worst weather you've seen so far rene and in an hour, you're getting northern i wall where the 75 mile per hour winds will be. do the people there walking around know they are going to get in the eye wall pretty soon? >> reporter: you know what? i'm going to bet they don't know, chad, because they haven't been paying very close attention. you know, they have have been coming to us to get updates what is happening, what is next, what is it actually going to make its way to the coast. so we've been kind of filling people in. i mean, we witnessed a short time ago, i'd say maybe 45 minutes, an hour ago, there was

a police officer who was pretty much walking up and down this boardwalk. his mission was to make sure that people were not going into the water. we saw him go all the way to the edge there, and we asked him when he got back what was going on. apparently two surfers were out there. they got themselves kind of caught in a situation where they didn't feel they would be able to get back to the shore, and that's why he made his way out there. again, just prime example of why they are telling you, it may look fun, these may look like waves to try out but we just saw a situation that unfortunate fo ended well, they got out just fine. >> thank goodness. >> i think these folks are very curious and want to see what arthur has to offer. >> rene marsh, let me take it from you. i know these parts of north carolina, people love to surf the waves and when you see a storm like this, don't do it. chad myers said don't do it. we're not seeing people behind you. the rain is falling but let me tell you, when we go to the live

shot from the beach area, aleena machado has been out there for hours. let me just go to you here, if we can, i mean, i can see the rain really coming down on you now. >> reporter: yeah, brooke, we are just absolutely getting slammed right now by arthur. you can see the wind gusts really pick up here and the rain is just coming down. it is really, really bad here. we've seen conditions deteriorate here probably rather rapidly. i'd say within the last ten minutes, this just started happening, and brooke, it's rough out here. >> i will take your word for it. be safe to you and your crew. chad myers, i mean, you've cover add number of these different hurricanes and several of them, obviously, have hit the coastal areas of north carolina but as you look at the swirling and swirling, it seems whatever she is experiencing now, it's almost

forshadowing what rene is about to see. >> the two separate parts of the storm intense. on shore flow here and that's what we expect from rene but now what we have here for aleena on the backside of the eye wall. i'm assuming your wind shifted direction almost 180 degrees, is is that true? >> reporter: it is. it is, chad. i don't know if you can see the direction of the wind just by the way the rain is falling, but yeah, it's whipping around the other direction and it's coming down hard and the wind gusts are pretty impressive. >> yeah, your wind gusts are at least 65 miles per hour on the backside of that eye and as we go up towards the northeast, rene's, as we get into this part here, you not only have wind gusts near 70 to 90, the forward motion and so as our reporters continue to get better and get worse, aleena you'll get better,

rene you're about to get slammed by the worst of this storm. you can never take the backside, aleena out of the storm. you can never not count that because all of a sudden you board up the east side and the winds blow through the west side and i have not seen you have winds like that the entire time we've been there. >> no, this is unique. we have seen strong wind gusts throughout the night and also throughout the afternoon, but nothing like this, chad, nothing like this. >> brooke, jake? >> all right. let me jump in, chad myers, if you're with me, we have these live pictures. chad, you've been watching this, not some of it, all night long with the rest of us. at least we're not seeing as many people walking behind the live shots as we saw people standing up paddle boarding and on an atv. here you go, live pictures, pretty clear beaches, obviously traffic there on the left side

of the screen. some areas mandatory evacuations, some voluntary, is this the worst of it for the beach area and is it moving northward? >> yes, it's officially done for rightsville. it's done for north myrtle. it's done for anyplace in south carolina and here you can see the cities, more head city, surf city, wilmington, oak island and take that off, this looks like a giant catcher's mitt right there. that water is getting in there and can't leave. it's stuck here and so we're really expecting the storm surge to be much worse than what was expected in some spots, at least five to seven feet and that will over wash some of these beaches, brooke. >> let me jump in if i can. one time after hurricane katrina i did an experiment where we went in a wind tunnel every now and then to feel what it actually feels like to have a 90 mile an hour wind, a 100 mile an hour wind.

i think we got up to 112. it felt like the skin was about to be ripped off my skull. >> wow. >> aleena where you are right now, obviously you're in a lot of discomfort and winds are picking up. tell us what you're feeling right now. >> reporter: well, it's interesting because it's been pretty warm all day but right now it's actually pretty cold. i have felt the -- it seems like the temperature at least for me has gone down quite a bit. it comes and goes and difficult to predict. it's very uncomfortable but this storm is strong. it hasn't been this bad. i want to point out, a few cars out on the road and seemed to be

listening to the warnings and paying attention to what authorities. >> aleena we see the cars driving by you and obviously in outer banks and i have to say lieutenant and felt as though he seemed to be suggesting that he didn't think people had been sufficiently told to leave the area. i wonder if that's true seeing the traffic when you were ten, 15 minutes away, maybe from the, ten or 15 minutes away from you and an hour to rene for the eye of the storm coming in. >> it's hard to say, you know, who these people are and where they are going. it's a big holiday week. there are many people who are pretty much stuck in this area.

they didn't have anywhere to go. but i think for the most part, the people from here are used to hurricanes. especially when you hear category one, two, there was some anxiety but most of the anxiety we've seen has have been coming from people who aren't from here. people vacationing, people who are unfamiliar with hurricanes. so my hope is that people are actually going to be staying home and that what we're seeing is the exception rather than the rule. >> brooke, did you want to pick up? >> yeah, let me jump in. thank you. we'll hop back to you and other correspondents but chad, as we focus and watch it swirling off the coastline, severe thunderstorm warning tonight for people in new york city. >> right. you know, hurricane winds in north carolina and tropical storm force winds in new york city not related to arthur. a cold front coming through new

york city right now. we tried to get the live shot from laguardia that went dead because of this. we have thunderstorms coming through new york city proper and this is not at all attached to tropical moisture. lightning and thunder just like last night, yeah, just like last night in new york city where lightning danced across the city. the same thing happening now coming overall of new jersey, sun down all the way up to connecticut tonight. severe weather, severe thunderstorm warnings across the northeast right now, brooke. >> we'll take a quick break right now and coming up, we'll go back to atlantic beach, north carolina to see how the residents there are holding up. >> we'll stay on that story and talk to reporters, grateful standing out in these conditions tonight and following the horrendous story, this father accused of murdering his toddler believing him in a hot car. in the morning, multiple hours,

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welcome back to the special breaking news coverage. hurricane arthur, north carolina just absolutely ominous skies, rain coming down. keep in mind this storm 90 miles an hour, winds pounding the beaches. would have been jammed pack full of people and some were this afternoon as it was beautiful blue skies this afternoon but think about tonight and think about tomorrow for the festivities for the 4th of july and then on top of this, let me tell you also, that tornado warnings are in effect for parts of eastern north carolina. so let's bring back aleena and also, andrew ruiz, an affiliate with wnct. andrew, why don't we begin with you. tell me where you are and what people are telling you there. >> reporter: we're here in

atlantic beach and the conditions are worsening. we're close to where rene is and in reality, the people have been vacating the beach just because it's almost got an unbearable, look at the waves and the wind that is coming. i mean, i can feel it on my face. we have rain drops pelting my face and sand that continues to pick up and come on over here but atlantic beach is really happening right now. we're definitely getting bands i heard you guys talk about and to be honest with you, i think people are just going back into their houses because it's completely unbearable out here. >> at least as we watch you, andrew, let me stay with you for a minute. it's clear behind you, no one, no one there, no one gawking, no one with phones but i want to ask because there are different types of evacuations. what were people told in that community? >> well here in atlantic beach, it was not a mandatory

evacuation. people were being asked to stay at home if they choose to do so but what they have done is put curfews in place. here at 11:00 people are asked to be inside their homes and further down in emerald aisle, they have to be home at 10:00. no mandatoondaandatory evacuati the eoc this morning, they told people please stay inside your home because you don't want to be in the way of law enforcement or ems. >> thank you with our affiliate wnct. aleena machato, the rain is pouring down where you are. you're describing the wind. andrew mentioned a curfew of 11:00 tonight. what's the situation there? >> reporter: obviously, the conditions here are worse and we've been playing with arthur so to speak all day. we've been getting a taste of him all day little by little. nothing like this, though, in

terms of the combination of really strong wind gusts and heavy downpours we're experiencing but in terms of people here, again, they were not told to evacuate. they were not, as far as i know and we've been in close contact with officials here, there is no curfew here. what they have told people is to use common sense to stay home while the storm is going on and also, to stay out of the water. earlier today, we saw many surfers, several surfers out in the water trying to catch some waves but they did get out as the conditions worsened throughout the afternoon. we are seeing some carps os on road but not as much traffic as you would expect on a holiday week, brooke. >> still as you said, people are heeding the warnings, not necessarily mandatory evacuation, queue the clears coming behind you. thank you. clearly people are out and about. people have taken off from work,

and not everyone is staying inside. >> that's right. it's disturbing to see for a lot of us. joining me on the phone, we have two dw guests, a man in the cen of the storm and lieutenant general roussell. he commanded efforts after hurricane katrina. let's start with you, mr. judge, the county on the coast expected to take the heavy damage. emergency management just warned residents to be prepared for significant over wash and sound side flooding. what are you telling citizens who are still there? >> well, hopefully, the island, visitors have heeded the warning for evacuations and residents have heeded the warning for evacuation. those are still there. they know that they have got to be inside. they have got to protect themselves, that it won't be

long before all emergency services can't respond such as ems and fire and sheriff. so it's a night of waiting things out at home on the island. >> okay. >> mr. judge, we've been seeing people on the beach all day in your county and other counties. are there anypla places people go? >> there are no red cross type shelters in the county. the beach towns have just recently sent the fire departments out because of the shift in the storm and the track at 5:00 began to credit a new impact for us on the northern beaches. the fire departments have gone around with their trucks, sirens, men, women, their loud speakers urging everybody to

vacate the ocean front. if they didn't want to get in their cars and check out and head home or head inland that the county had opened shelters and schools that they could go over and seek shelter. >> let me bring in general honorary, general, what should the biggest concern be with the storm? flooding, wind damage? is there lethal potential here that people should be guarding against right now? >> yeah, flooding will be the biggest event that we can face. flooding killed more people than any other event. the biggest impact would be the surge hitting low lying areas and pushing the water into the kes coastal. north carolina, great national guard. they have to respond quickly. the problem is, people start making their own estimates based

on the category of storm. the amount of surge water that can come in and over mind your house that you're in as we saw in sandy, it wasn't even a category one but the surge water can destroy the home and get people trapped in low-lying areas. so again, i think the message should have been louder and clearer all day move away from the coastline and definitively tell the people to move away as opposed to trying to shelter in place or wait until the storm passed so we can get on with the 4th of july weekend. more people should have cancelled trips. i hope i'm a mission of call in the dark here to people who have not arrived yet to go away from the storm and wait that 24 hours. that 100 mile an hour wind, jake, will take the distribution lines down. the distribution lines bring electricity to the area, let

alone the service lines that are to come down as a result of trees. and that's going to make for miserable conditions. if you haven't arrived, go away from the storm, wait out 24 hours and see if the area can still be occupied. >> thank you for the sound advice. warren judge, stay safe out there. we'll think and pray for the people of derrick county. more on hurricane arthur just how much cities and towns along the eastern seaboard will the storm smash? we'll take a closer look at the most vulnerable areas coming up. >> also ahead tonight, new details, heart wrenching details out of the cobb county georgia courthouse today. this is the father facing felony murder for killing his little toddler, alleging sexing with different women as his son was trapped slowly dying in a scorching hot car.

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welcome back to cnn special live coverage. you're looking at pictures from new york city, this is not related to the severe weather

hitting north carolina there you see shots from atlantic beach north carolina. i believe the you wall of hurricane arthur is about 20 minutes away, 20 to 30 minutes away from hitting there, there is shots from northern north carolina on the outer banks. we're following a huge development in a case that has gripped the nation. allegations out of the case in cobb county, georgia. brooke baldwin in atlanta. >> when you look at the images of the family, couple, little boy, looks picture perfect. the prosecution, look at this, made the father, justin ross harris to be nothing short of a monster. this father is charged with felony murder in the 22 monday old death of his son cooper there. police say the boy had been in harris' suv for about seven hours. this was june 18th. think about it, scorching hot

georgia sun in june. temperatures were above 90 degrees that day. we're also learning from his testimony from this hearing today that the family was having financial troubles, financial difficulties and had taken not just one, two life insurance policies out on their young toddler. listen to the detective here, his testimony today. >> now in speaking with him and from looking through the text messages and chats with his wife and things like that, were they having any type of financial difficultie difficulties. >> they were. >> what type? >> she was complaining about purchasing, purchasing. >> who was in control of the finances at that time. >> he was. >> did he tell you anything about finances? >> yes. >> what? >> the finances were fine. they recently charged up $4,000 on a credit card and he had done that for the airline miles. >> so there are two sides to the story, defense saying this was a horrible accident, this father

merely forgot, form got to take the boy to daycare but police say in the weeks before little cooper's death, harris did an internet search for a couple things including he served how to survive in prison, how to live a child free life, and even searched for an line videos of animals and people dying. victor blackwell was inside the courtroom today when these new details came to light. he joins me from outside this evening. let's begin with the emotion or perhaps lack thereof when you are looking at this man sitting there hearing these horrendous descriptions of his 22 month old, the scratches on his face and the back of his head sitting in the suv. tough to listen to. >> really graphic descriptions in this three-hour hearing today but we only saw, at least i saw an emotional reaction, tears from ross harris three times, once when a witness there on the day that this boy was pulled from the vehicle described ross -- harris' screams, what

have i done, what have i done and twice witnesses called by his attorney described how much he loved his son. there was not a lot of response from harris, ross harris and lee anna harris, however, when the detective started to go into the line of questioning about the sexting, especially with a 16-year-old girl then allegedly, there was an audible response from this gallery filled with in many ways ross harris supporters. why? let me show you. right here, we've got the courthouse in which today's proceedings happened. i want to show you the church he's a member of is on the corner, stone bridge church. we saw about 40 or 50 of them kind of walk in at the same time and they surrounded the wife here, lee anna harris who only really started to show some emotion after, again, the descriptions of how much this man loved his son. there was also a moment of

pungsuation when the defense attorney asked the lead detective, would it surprise you to know that ross harris is deaf in his right ear? we hadn't heard anything about that. if you think he's in the driver's seat here and the car seat is in the center, is it possible he did not hear the boy right next to him? that was another moment of explanation from the crowd but the largest right at the end when the judge said he did find probable cause and he was not going to give him bond. ross harris sunk down into his seat and then let out. it was all over. >> you were there. you saw it all. victor blackwell, thank you so much. interesting as you point out, the proximity from the church to the courthouse. let's behind everyone as we bring in our legal panel, sunny hostin, paul colin and holy hues. jake taper, join in, as well, over the weekend, this little boy, they had the funeral for this little boy in alabama and from what i understand, they actually allowed this father to call in. again, he faces felony murder

charges, call in from behind bars. much of what he said was audible and received with standing ovation. lots of support for this man within this community that said, sonny hosten, my first case to you. the gasp in the courtroom with regard to the wife, number one she goes to the daycare the day her son dies and has no idea, goes to the daycare, finds out the child isn't there. the first thing she says is that her husband must have left him in the car and the second issue which is that something you would think of? i don't know. second issue being the interaction in the police interrogation room describing the father said i dreaded how cooper would look, past tense dreaded, your take? >> i've been on twitter of course all day and this is just the top pick of discussion and the whole way here at cnn and just everywhere. >> everywhere. >> and everyone is questioning the mother and her reactions and

at this point, i'm not, i don't have enough to, i think, say definitively there was some sort of conspiracy between them to kill their child, but her reactions are just so very, very odd and i often say and i said it when i was prosecuting cases, you really don't know how people are going to react. there is no rule book. there is no uniform way that people react but observing her today, brooke, in the courtroom, not in tears, we're talking about her boy hasn't been dead a month, not even -- bare by been two weeks. it's just her reaction to me is very, very suspicious, it's very odd. i don't quite know what to make of it. i also think the fact that he said dreaded, he dreaded the way his boy's face would look in the past tense is also very suspicious but again, you really don't know how people will react to tragedy, what is more informative for me are the actions that he took before, before this deadly incident.

the searches on the internet, that sort of thing. i think that that is more informative. >> jake tapper, jump in. >> i wanted to ask paul kalin a question to play devil's advocate. obviously, i didn't like a lot of what i heard in the courtroom in terms of the character of ross harris. an average of 38 children a year die in hot cars in the u.s., 14% of parents according to some polling have accidently left their children in a parked car and nearly one in four parents of a child younger than three has forgotten the child in a car. this is according to safe kids.org. usually the husband, father, not a mother. so paul, what did you hear in this hearing today that you think is not surmountable for a defense attorney? i heard a lot of things about this guy's character that maybe

i wouldn't want him to live next to me. what did you hear that made you think he probably can't beat this? >> well, this case was totally transformed today, jake, and usually, you know, in preliminary hearings, these probable cause hearings, you get a brief outline, a bare bones case presented by the prosecution and you don't get a sense of where they are going. this case transformed from a case where a lot of people were saying, well, it could have been an accident, are they doing the right thing in prosecuting him to a case where at the very end the judge said, i'm not going to grant bond in this case because it might be a death penalty case. now, that, what the judge was saying basically he's heard enough that the prosector could charge this as a premeditated murder which would be punishable by death. talk about a transform mansion from a case based on an accident to something different. on that subject you just touched on that i think a lot of people

thought about and sonny mentioned, 38 death as year children left in cars. we have to start out by saying most of the time parent whose have a momentarily lapse and leave a child in a car or look around a supermarket and can't find their kid, we've had that fear. because our antennas are focused on where the kids are. that's not criminal and that's redeemable and that doesn't get prosecuted. where children die, i was doing research on this, 60% of those cases are prosecuted as homicide cases in the united states. 40% are not. it's a subjective decision made by a prosecutor as to whether it was gross negligence or reckless conduct that the parent engaged in. in this case, i think that standard is met very easily if any of this evidence is believed at trial. remember, he's presumed innocent like every defendant at this stage. >> absolutely. >> it's almost like we've had a

trial already. >> i know. it's three hours. >> oh my god. >> i know. you bring up the point about the kids dying in cars. i talked to a woman on my show not too long ago when this story was percolating. she accidently, the charges were totally dropped, you know, left her child in the car and sadly, this child died and sometimes it is simply the perfect storm. sometimes as a parent your mind is simply elsewhere. but my question, this is something that the lead detective was driving home when he was being questioned and holly hues, i want you to jump in on this. it was 40 seconds between this chick-fil-la in which this father and son, we both know they both got out of the car, were inside this chick-fil-la, not like a drive through situation, 40 seconds from chick-fil-la to the red light, two more minutes before he got to work, instead of taking a different turn to go to the daycare, in three minutes, the district attorney will hammer home how do you forget about your child in three minutes? >> right, even in the 40 seconds

because remember, they said do you have to stop at a stoplight? yes. how soon after you leave chick-fil-la? the district attorney did today was brilliant. when you have a case like this, you are going to timeline it out. so if this case proceeds to trial, brooke, we're going to see a huge timeline, power point, leaving the chick-fil-la, 40 seconds later stop at a light and you have to look left and right. so the implication is even if you're deaf in your right ear, if you don't hear the child chattering, when you're watching traffic, turning to see if it's safe for you to drive that vehicle or not, you are going to see that little boy there and you're not going to forget him that that little short time period. >> didn't he even have to back the car into the parking spot? >> he did back in. >> there was testimony there was no rear camera so he would have had to look backwards to back

the car into the parking space. >> it was a rear-facing seat but can i say something? the timeline doesn't bother me as much as it bothers other people because we know that d districted -- districted parents, the timeline doesn't matter as much. this is a top pick i'm glad we're talking about because we need to do something more about these cases. we hear about them often and have public service announcements about see something, say something. there needs to be a movement about this. one suggest i would like to make, which is what i implemented in my life, i started driving without my shoes. i would place my shoes in back near my children's car seats because no one is ever going to park their car and then drive to work or go walk to work or rather walk into a mall without

shoes. so it ensured for me that i would never ever do that again and so i just put that out there for the parents that are watching because if that, my story saves one life, it's important but i'm happy we're talking about this because something needs to be done. >> absoluteabsolutely. there is an entire organization. kids in cars.org raises awareness, whether taking your shoes off or whatever you need to do it happens too often and the bottom line is now a 22 month old is gone because he was left in a car. sunny hostin, paul colin, this could be one of the biggest stories of the year. we'll stay on it. also ahead, hurricane arthur slamming atlantic beach, north carolina right now. our crews are standing by. ear popping wind, intense rainfall. we're there in the thick of it for you tonight. special live coverage here on cnn, stay with me. the cadillac summer collection is here.

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>> welcome back to cnn's coverage of hurricane arthur. you're looking at live images of the outer banks of north carolina where things are getting worse than they were at the top of the hour. let's go to rene marsh and we have meteorologist and severe weather expert chad mire yers w us. chad, what does rene have, go ahead, rene, tell us what you're going through right now.

it sounds grizzly. >> reporter: sorry about that, jake. you know, we're having delays here. i'll tell you chad was right on the money because we are experiencing a lot of wind. the worst wind we've experienced today. the wind is producing the sand, if i stand this way it's to avoid sand in my eyes. you feel it in your skin. when you talk about what it felt like earlier today, the sun was shining, it was a bit over cast but boy was it hot. the heat was just hot and now it's actually chilly here so with this rain as well as heavy wind, heaviest we've seen, strongest i should say that we've seen all evening is just making for a very uncomfortable situation and that would explain why the crowds that we saw out here earlier, they have all went -- they have all taken

cover and gone inside at this point. back to you, jake. >> chad, what does rene have ahead of her? where is she in the storm right now? >> the winds that rene will feel if she's standing outside will double from where they are now. that's about 45 or 50 miles per hour. they are going to 90 miles per hour. there is the eye wall right there. that's the part that's going to affect rene in the next 45 minutes. so what you think is bad right now is going to get twice as bad, if not worse, because we haven't seen the worst of this storm make landfall yet, but it's about to make landfall where rene is. that's the center of the storm. the eye is getting smaller. when an eye gets smaller, jake, you see more wind. you get more angular momentum into the middle like a tornado compared to a big rotating thunderstorm. obviously, the tornado was always faster and that's what we're getting when we get a smaller and smaller eye, you get faster and faster winds, jake. >> chad myers and rene, thank you so much.

let's go to jeff, a storm chaser, he's currently in north carolina right now heading right into this storm. he joins me on the phone. jeff, tell us what you're seeing, tell us about the conditions where you are. >> right now, the conditions the last hour are dramatically increasing on the wind. the rain and i'm actually on the southeast side. the live shot as you can see the waves are tripled in size. there were two to four feet and up in the four to ten feet range and waves are getting quite large. on the road, i've got sand dune containers blown over the road about a foot deep. like irene, we think it will compromise on the south side and if the eye goes north which is the latest forecast, the eye wall, the backside of the eye coming through, when we go to west wind from 70 to 90, maybe gusts at 100, we expect a major surge of water north of cape harris, similar to the rain and

flooding. that's what everybody on the island is worried about tonight. >> jeff, how many people are still on the island based on traffic and lights. >> well, compared to irene, the evacuations have gone smoother. they had a mass evacuation, 90% of the locals left as well as businesses closed as well as probably 99% of people on vacation out here. they did on outstanding job of getting people off the island. they got it locked down and an excellent job out here. everybody is going to be glad they are off and it will be bad here tonight. >> for people not familiar with where you are exactly, explain where you are on the map. >> the southeastern edge of north carolina to the south about 50 miles from the point right where the ben is where it goes back southwest, right now

the outer bands are about 40 miles southwest and eye is probably 140 miles southwest and tracking towards us and closing in and getting stronger. we could have a strong category two storm, hurricane which is going to be stronger when it passes. so we expect worse conditions from midnight to 6:00 a.m. and a lot of problems. >> jeff, be safe. thank you so much. >> coming up, arthur aiming for a direct hit on north carolina revving up to be a stronger hurricane. millions in the path. we'll look at who is most at risk coming up. [ female announcer ] there's a gap out there. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease... if grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home... the gap begins to close. so let's simplify things.

let's close the gap between people and care. a direct hit on north carolina

you know, sometimes pictures tell the story but if you listen, listen to the pounding rain here along the coastline of north carolina. we're talking about a hurricane, category one. this is arthur, you're looking at live pictures from north carolina here. this hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles an hour. it's strong and getting stronger, could be a category two hurricane actually be time it makes landfall tonight or early on the 4th of july. tom foreman joins me now from the magic wall. tom foreman, tell me about the numbers. who is at risk? >> the people at risk out here, the whole coast is not equal. for example, if we take a look at the general layout of the coast here, it is changed very dramatically over the past 20 years or so and some areas have really filled in, but if you

look, you can see what happened here. 299% growth to 125,000 people down in this county. you move up the way, every single place what you see is what is a national trend in the country, more and more people moving to coastal areas, everyone moving up, moving up, moving up over that period of time. so much so that when you talk about this storm in just eight counties here in north carolina and a tiny bit of virginia in just those eight counties, you get well over a million people under immediate risk from this storm in those counties. and that complicates everything about dealing with the risk to them. for example, if we look at this map and talk about the storm surge related to this, even if you get five feet or so, that will go all the way up here making some flooding threat to all of these areas, all of this, up here and out here. that's a tremendous number of

people. something like this, highway 12, if you talk about that, then you start talking about real impacts like this where the whole road can be wiped out. that affects everybody getting in, everyone getting out, and it gets really complicated even though at some moments you may say it's not a big storm, the fact so much is concentrated and become more that way every decade recently than you see why this becomes a problem, even on relatively simple things like evacuation routes that weren't necessary set to handle the flow of people coming out from the storms nor the flow of help that might have to come in after word if there is heavy flooding that comes from this. >> okay. tom foreman, thank you so, so much. and jake tapper. >> good luck to everyone as the eye wall hits north carolina this evening. that's it for us this hour.

we hope the people up and down the east coast are safe. brooke, thanks for joining me and of course, "the sixties" and of course, "the sixties" documentary starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the average time spent watching television is five to six hours a day. >> there is a reason for growing the tube. >> let's change the channel. >> here is the news. >> you must give the american viewer the kind of television that they desire and deserve. >> let's try and do it again and see what comes out this time. >> television has grown faster than a