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tv   Wolf  CNN  September 13, 2018 10:00am-11:00am PDT

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because the swath is so wide and the storm is so large. that is a big difference as well. you can fit two or three of hurricane harvey inside florence as it stands now. >> appreciate it. stay safe. our coverage continues right now with anderson cooper and chris cuomo. >> an extremely dangerous storm closing in on the carolinas. i'm in wilmington, north carolina and don lemon is in myrtle beach and chris cuomo in north myrtle beach. this is special coverage on hurricane florence. the storm starts to make its way inland with storm surges and relentless rain. we are in position up and down the coast as florence begins its assault. even though the storm weakened slightly, it is still extremely
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dangerous. florence is expected to cover over carolina as a slow moving storm. dumping 10 trillion gallons of rain before it's over. i want to get to the latest where florence is and where it's headed. jennifer gray is tracking the storm for us. bring us up to date. >> the storm is already reaching the shore. the outer bands starting to pound the coastline. it will be downhill and last for 24 to 36 hours. this storm is big. it has grown in size. many more people will be impacted even though we were talking about yesterday. this storm kept the strength for so long, it has so much momentum with it. it is going to bring all that was onshore. that's why we are going to get the life-threatening storage surges and the dangerous flooding. we have the watch in effect. tornados will be a problem as well. as the outer bands come onshore,
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it will bring the waves and the wind and that surge that we have been talking about. the center of the storm about 200 miles offshore. it is moving at a terrific base pace, but it will sit over the carolina coast for 36 hours at least. winds gust to 125. just as you say it weakened, keep in mind most storms move in quickly. this storm will not. while structures may be able to with hand 100 mile per hour winds, will they be able to sustain 100 mile per hour winds for 24 or 36 hours? that will be the huge question and make this is storm incredibly unique. 61 miles per hour. 45 miles per hour. between r between the storm and the coast, they had a wave
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height of 26 feet. as the storm pushes onshore, that will be incredible. it's going to sit. 20 to 30 inches of rain. the storm surge is expected to be 9 to 13 feet in some areas. >> where i am, this is the cape fear river in wilmington. the record for it is more than 23. it's about three feet. record is more than 23 feet. that was hurricane floyd in 1999. they expected to break the record going higher than 23 feet which woulded mean a rise of 20 feet in parts of the river. when people hear this is now a category two, i think a lot of people wake up and think it's not so bad.
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can you explain why this is the size of this thing is enormous. it doubled in just the size of it. >> it really has. we focus on the number. we focus on the winds. with this storm, it's not the winds that matter. it's the duration of the storm. it's the size of the storm. the storm is incredibly big. it keeps growing in size. the fact that it's going to sit along the coast for 24 to 36 hours is going to be devastating, especially when you have 100 mile per hour winds. like i was mentioning, you have a storm that comes and goes, that's one thing. if you have 100 mile per hour winds in a storm that will hit there, that say completely different ball game. the fact that this storm was so big and powerful for so long, it carries all that was energy with it regardless of what the wind speed is. that carries all the energy
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onshore. that will create the storm surge and they announced a category two. that's why they were when it was a category four. on to which that, we will see it through several high tide cycles. maybe even six high tide cycles. that will cause the storm surge to go higher than 13 feet because you have to take into account how much the water level rises with a high tide. >> we will be watching the boats in the marina closely. we will check in with you throughout the day. chris cuomo is in north myrtle beach, south carolina. the slow movement of this storm, when it comes on shore it will be moving about four miles per hour. this thing will last a long time and dump a lot of rain and with that storm surge, this is going to be a very, very huge water event. >> reporter: and that's the problem. people are sleeping on the storm
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because they are seeing the category strength go down five to four, to three and two. that think that means it's getting easier to deal with. they are wrong. i will take strength over size any day. duration causes problems and so much damage. let's set up where we are for the audience. do me a favor and put up the map. north mertle beach. you will see a cup of nine to 10 miles of coast where anderson is. on the southside, another major city. north myrtle beach. in terms of looking at typography, see how deep we are? we will see the action later, but there will be more energy am can be in here because it works like a funnel effect. you look at the beach around, this is going to be the marker. the pier will be a parkmarker o
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what this storm does. differences and intensity and height and storm surge right on that and hopefully not a lot of damage index as well. this beach is very shallow. people all morning have been calling these dunes. this is not a dune. this is landscaping. this is grass. this is not very absorbent and not very high. it is certainly not effective. this is a normal high tide pooling we are showing over here. this is just normal. if the water comes here ordinarily, imagine what happens with another 10 feet. 10 feet squared. right here the water will be 10 feet. where i'm standing right now. obviously you see a big problem. that leads us to what worries us most here on the ground. look at all the people. we talked to the officials and they said 85% evacuated and the numbers here are 15,000 all year
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around. 70 or 75,000 in the high tourist season. look at this. the number of people, take it over to the right and show how many people are here. they are ganged up because that's where the parking lot is and the local watering hole that people were at last night. not only are there so many people here, but anderson, the casualness of the attitude toward this is storm is not going to be that bad. i was here for hugo. that was a four. this is only a two. these are not intelligent statements to be making. where they are standing right now is going to be 10 feet of water in all likelihood. it's going to be lasting for about 30 hours. officials, as a result, are going to put in a curfew starting tonight. 7:00 to 7:00. look at this mom with her baby playing in the pool. it's a beautiful moment for a beach day, but that's not what it is. you will see them to your left
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with that beautiful dog that keeps going in the water. the beach day now, but bad day coming soon. even though it's mandatory, they can't force people to leave. they can control movement. they are going to institute a curfew. full disclosure and jay and i went in the water this morning. it's really warm which is one of the reasons we are seeing this sky. it is absorbing so much energy and slowing it down. the sweep of the clouds are already in place. this is the energy pattern that we are going to see. the back side, the dirty side of the storm will have a whip effect on this whole 10-mile stretch of the beach. i'm very worried about what happens with the population density. we will go to diane in newburgh. all of the first responders are staying on 12-hour shifts. one of the reason is these people. they have to be here to ensure
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safety. it's not a job they wanted to do. but now, they are going to have to. >> reporter: not at all, chris. we just came out to union point park. we were at the emergency manager's office. when we were leaving, there was someone calling saying can someone come get me. they said sorry, at this point you have to shelter in place. you had several bands of wind and rain and we are starring to get it again. we are on a road. i want to you see how high up this water is already. the this is a public park. there are swing sets that are starting to go under water and we have not experienced the bulk of the rain we are supposed to get. this is the reason why. this is the noose river. it kind of converms in craven county with the pemlico sound that creates this perfect storm, if you will, for severe flooding in the craven count i area.
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new burn, north carolina. harlow and moorehead city, north carolina. if i can get my photographer to pan over, you can start to see some of the boats and the docks are going under water right now as well. chris, i'm almost six feet tall and this is up to my knees of water. we are waiting for the rain to start setting in. the worst part about this is the fact that people are worried about the back end. you were talking about that dirty back end of the hurricane. because this noose river spills back out into the ocean, all of the flooding that happened inland that hurricane florence is going to bring into the inland part and the flood they are worried about, this part will come out and likely reflood the area at the end of the hurricane. once most people have gone away. they are worried about a double effect here. i want to you look over there. there are buoys moving and the
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wind is picking up. it's coming in the bands like a hurricane does. sometimes it's super strong. we can't keep our hats on. we watched the birds and the geese struggle to get on to land. it was struggling so hard in the wind. the rain has come in driving sheets. since then it has been on and off. here right now for the most part, the hotels are all full. we had a hard time getting a room because people are trying to get out, but many said it's a category two. it's turning south. it's not that big of a deal. the problem is they won't be able to rescue them when the flooding happens after this hurricane. they have lots of people in place. almost 700 in this county working and waiting for hurricane florence to do rescues. they have a dive team here waiting with them as well to assist. i have to tell you, i am worried because look at all of the
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flooding right now. this is a public bark. there were children playing here five minutes ago before a police officer made them move with their paurrents. i am fearful for new burn as it coming in later today and tonight. >> thank you very much, diane. you are out lining the occurrence. we were talking while i was listening to your report. everybody wants to be wrong about storm damage and duration and we want it to be better. it's the only time you open your information is bad because you want it to have as little impact as possible. i have never seen this many people in a mandatory evacuation zone. fair point. the storm is not here right now. diane gallagher is a little bit north of us. that's how big of a difference it is because of what part of the storm you are seeing. which part of the band.
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the duration of 30 hours is a game changer. people who cover the situation. once the window closes, it stays shut for a long time. usually six or eight hours. that's a day plus of not being able to move. none of this existed afterwards. the population is more than ever and so is the risk. i've never seen this. in a mandatory evacuation zone taking in what apparently is a breezy beautiful beach day, but it's about to change.
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>> i can't see you, but it's a completely different story where i am. let's take a look around. the person like me who loves to talk and love people, there is hardly anybody on this beach. you got 10 miles of beach where you are. i have myrtle beach with about 60 miles. the only people here, maybe a couple of people live here and a couple of tourists, but media hanging out as far as the eye can see hochlt teleafter hotel. if you want to get into a hotel, you have to get one of the bands. you are not supposed to be here. if you are here, you have to get a band and that's the only way they know you are staying and you are riding this thing out. high tide, chris was talking about the difference between the beach and the hotel. show that way. it's not that far when you consider especially if you are looking at big long beaches or wide beaches in the northeast
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and down the gulf coast. i will talk out a little bit. high tide was at 11:30 this morning. pretty much came all the way up to it. they call it a dune and i call it landscaping. it's not enough of a barrier to keep you safe. this is about 15 feet. about 10 more feet out here. you can go up for a little bit. it's shallow and shallow and that's how the water builds up and builds up. people are heeding the warnings here. this particular beach closed myrtle beach at 8:00. everyone had to get off the beach. there are stragglers and there is a curfew they put into place starting at 7:30 tonight until 7:30 in the morning. that could extend a little bit. here's what you should know about this area. it's from memorial day to labor day and tourist season and summer season. not here because of the climate. this can go well into november,
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maybe even later because of the problem here is heat. it's warm. these hotels are usually filled with people. look at this. miles and miles and only a few people here to see. as i was coming in, i saw the clouds and they tell you that something bad is brewing out there in the ocean. i saw it and i felt it. he is in carolina beach riding out the storm. what do you have for us? what are you seeing? >> we are feeling the first pulse of florence that has come through here. the first tentacle of this storm that came across and we are expecting more shortly. the next hour or so, the winds will pick up. the current conditions right now, we are seeing 30 to 35 mile per hour winds and the waves are impressive. they have been growing throughout the day.
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we are on a waping tide right now and the waves are washing up on to the beach and threatening the berm that is along the beach here. the giant berm that goes up and down here. the problem they are going to have here is not so much the wind, but the flooding. you will see the waves like this plus a storm surge that will push several feet of water into the area. a massive truck. a bulldozer of water by the storm. 20 or 30 inches or more of rain on top of that. they expect at least a third of the town here in carolina beach to be flooded and inaccessible because the one road in and out always floods, even on a good day. the other big concern is the brunswick nuclear power plant. duke energy taking the steps to start shutting down the two units. they are expecting winds of at
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least 75 miles per hour. gusts right now, but when the winds become sustained, that's where the real difficulty will be and what we are waiting for now in the next hour or so. we expect the winds to hit about 45 when the bridge into town will have to be shut down for safety reasons and emergency personnel will no longer respond to emergency situations. you are on your own. don? >> all right, miguel marquez. carolina beach. this is where we get the first indication. we will feel the winds coming in and see it with the clouds and see the water come up. that's the big concern. storm surge, storm surge, storm surge. that's how people die in storms. they drown. more so than the winds. this is cnn's special coverage. we have it all covered for you. be sure to stay tuned. i'm don lemon in myrtle beach.
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a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! . businesses are boarded up as hurricane florence is moving in. thanks so much for being here. this is going to be a huge water event talking about storm surge and rain. there may be at much as eight months of rain in three days. >> that has us concerned. this is a slow moving system and dumping a tremendous amount of rain. this thing is going to drop a tremendous amount of rain and
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flooding. >> you had a lot of rain already. >> yes, we have. we have seen the usual amount of rainfall. this will be a significant event. >> in the river, the record was in 1999 with hurricane floyd. you think it's going to go higher? >> yeah, we are predicting 20 or 30 or isolated areas with 40 inches of rain. that's a lot of rain and it's a big system. it's going to be here for sometime. >> what is it going to look like? >> we may go through a couple of high tides. depending on when it comes in. about 8:00 in the morning or tomorrow, we could see a significant storm surge. of course downtown area, especially water will be flooded and the barrier islands will be flooded. >> with this with the marina, what happened to the boats? if this thing raises 20 feet or 10 feet, that's the spot. >> what you see behind you will
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be gone. the people that put this in, they are complicating and making sure they pull them in higher than anticipated, but you could lose the marina. >> do you feel like most people have evacuated and heeded the warnings? how have the shelters been? >> the shelters are filling in. five of them that are open. a lot of people heeded the warnings and left town. over a quarter of the population is left. what the concern is with all this water we will have will be dumped upon us. these people will come back to the city and check on their property and get back home. there may be a couple of days before that they can get through. the highway patrol will be monitoring interstate 40. all the major cities that come in. >> do you worry that people woke up and heard cat two and said
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it's not going to be that bad, but the size of the storm is just huge. >> the ones that we think of like that are the ones that are the most dangerous because of the amount of water. it's moving so slowly. >> it's 400 miles wide. it will be torrential downpours for long time with high winds. >> appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. i wish you the best. we will talk to the mayor over the next couple days. a surprising development on the president's supreme court pick and the fbi. stay tuned for that. (vo) combine the right things.
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show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. i'm wolf blitzer. we will get back to our special coverage of hurricane florence in a moment. we are looking at kill devil hills and there is breaking news on capitol hill. democratic senator dianne feinstein is the ranking member of the senate judiciary hearing and she said federal investigators will be looking into a matter with brett kavanaugh as the supreme court nomination.
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joining us from capitol hill, this is stunning news. there is a statement she just released. read the short statement and tell us what you are hearing. >> the ranking democrat said she referred this information she received to federal authorities. i received information from an individual concerning the nomination of brett kavanaugh to the supreme court. they requested confidentiality and declined to come forward or pressed the the matter further. i honored that decision, but i referred the matter to federal investigative authorities. it is unclear exactly what she is talking about and what information has come to light that has been given to her about brett kavenaugh and his past. each members of this committee do not know what this issue is about. the chairman of the committee, we asked him about this and he said he had not seen this issue,
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but only read press accounts. even the democrats were pressing the senator to tell them what this is about. they have not gotten that full debrief from her, but nevertheless she has take then extraordinary step at this stage in the process to give this information to the authorities because to look into this further. our colleague caught up with dick durbin who is the senate minority whip and asked him about this as well. durbin said he didn't know how serious it is and if it's something that will be damaging to kavanaugh or something that is nothing serious at all, but he is trying to delay the proceedings as democrats have been trying to do, demanding the confirmation be delayed until this is fully investigated. the republicans want to have a committee vote next week and on the floor soon after for him to
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get confirmed by the october date. we will see ultimately what they d decide to do, wolf. >> this is extraordinary. i don't remember a time when the ranking moment at the last moment, september 20th, they are supposed to vote on the confirmation has come forward with a statement like this saying she has referred the matter to federal investigators. it is pretty stung. i assume it has to be very serious for her to do this? >> potentially, yes, wolf. the democrats have been on a fishing expedition for sometime, republicans say, trying to derail kavanaugh trying to impugn his character and integrity without having the evidence to back it up.
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nevertheless, putting this out at this stage raises questions going forward. ultimately we will see if it raises questions over the key votes in the senate. the moderate senato senator,particularly like lisa murkowski and susan collins who hold the key to his nomination. if they decide he should wait to figure it out going forward. we have not heard from them yet. the judge broke. we will get a sense of whether it has any impact on the nomination process. the democrats are planning to press forward. >> we will see watch it very, very closely. i know you and the team on capitol hill are working their sources. other breaking news including the hurricane. chris cuomo is in north myrtle beach. there is critically important news where you are as well.
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>> true. you are going from a political storm to a real storm headed where we are. this is north myrtle beach, south carolina. i will give you the equation of the moment. you take the information that florence say category two. people look up at the sky and start to see what they believe are the storm bands and it equates to a sense of false confidence that create this is scene on the beach that jay will show you right now. humans of people hanging out on what is a beautiful breezy beach day here on some 10 miles of north myrtle beach coast. the waves are amazing and it's all going to change. that's why we have chief spain with us here doing the preparations. thank you and thank you for your efforts in staying here to keep everybody safe. this worried me. there are too many people out here. this is a mandatory evacuation zone. what do you know to be the situation some.
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>> when people hear the storm has slowed down in intensity, they try to move more. the message is the storm might have slowed down to 105 miles an hour, but the forward motion of the storm slowed down. the intensity of the storm will be around a lot longer. we have gone door-to-door in this area we are in north of you and we know how many people are in each building. if you look directly behind you, you don't see anybody. it's the people directly in front of you. >> a few issues come up. we were talking off camera, eight months of rain in three days. the saturation and the pool and the wind and the surge. that creates lethality and tough situations to deal with. these people demand your attention. you are going to have to be here to rescue them. people don't connect those and say i am taking care of
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themselves, but they put you at risk. >> absolutely. there comes a time where we can't respond to them. if the winds are over 50 miles an hour, we will not be able to respond to them. we have three high water vehicles deployed throughout the city and have swift water boats we can use. we are prepared, but the people need to get back to their houses and nobody needs to be out on the beach. the surf is rough. people are getting to the edge of the water. that doesn't need to happen. >> understood 100%. mandatory evacuation and sounds 100%, but you can't force people to leave. you can put a curfew. starting at 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a. thank you for putting your on the line including the people enjoying this day. we will be here if we can help in any way. thank you. cnn has special coverage all up
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and down the coast. we are showing you the path of florence and the reality. please heed the warnings. better to be safe than sorry. we will take a quick break. stay with cnn.
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>> welcome back. i'm anderson cooper in wilmingt wilmington, north carolina where people are trying to get their
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last looks at the marina area here and see the calm before the storm. because this is going to be a multiday rain and water surge event. there is going to be a lot of water here in wilmington. i was talking to the mayor and they are expecting a 20-feet rise on the cape fear river. the mayor thinks these boats and this marina could be gone by the end of the next three days. we'll be watching that very losly. we want to go to more head city. how are things right there? how is it doing now? > >> anderson. the bands on the north of hurricane florence are starting to pound on north caroline a. here in more head city in the
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marina, out this way, the atlantic ocean. that's east out this way. you can see how rough the waters have now started popping up here in the bay of more head city. a lot of boats taken out. some here a short moment ago. there were water rescue teams on a small boat. two officers going out to make sure nobody had been strand. there had been a report that perhaps there were two people in the boat that have been washed into that bank on the other side. they didn't find anybody in there. that just happened moments ago. those two officers came racing off the water when they checked the boats and found there was no one inside. you can see how the conditions have deteriorated. the winds have been about 40 to 45 miles an hour with wind gusts up to 55 or 60. already here early on in the part of the storm, there are two brims that take you from the
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mainland to the barrier island that you can no longer see. atlantic beach that you see behind me. the brims on to the islands have been shut down. the officers are keeping people from getting onshore. the officers told me as soon as the winds pick up, they will be pulled off the streets and waiting for the brunt of the storm to blow through. they are getting to the point where being out on the streets is no longer viable. we are paying close attention to that as well. that is the condition here in more head city where we start to see the rain bands on the north eastern edge hitting into this part of the coast line here in north carolina. anderson. >> we will check in with you throughout this day and throughout the next couple of days and nights. this is going to be a long lasting storm of battering all
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up and down the coast here. at least one nuclear power plant has been shut down as a precaution. it's the brunswick planned and only about 20 feet above sea level. flooding is a concern. brian todd joins me from brunswick county with more on that. how are things there and how are preparations? >> anderson, we are getting the first touches of heavy storm force winds here in south port, north carolina. flooding will be a concern because of the place behind me. the brunswick nuclear power plant here in south port. you can see my photojournalists will zoom into the blue towers coming up out of the main blue structures. we are told they are being shut down. they might be shut down already.
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at least two hours ahead. the problem and the concern is this place has the same design structure as the fukushima nuclear power plant in japan that suffered the catastrophic melt downs after the earthquake and tsunami in japan. they both remember that very well. we are told now that this place is going to be secure. it is four miles inland from the ocean. 20 feet above sea level. they put in steel barriers. flooding is not going to be an issue because of the factors. they are not really near the river which officials are fearing the storm surge. they are about two to three miles away. the only water is an intake canal. we are getting assures by official this is plant is going to be safe in the hours ahead, even though again when you hear the word fukushima, this is designed the same way and built in the 70s.
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this is the same hurricane to come through and they will be watching closely because they have not had catastrophic rainfall and it is a concern for this facility. >> don lemon is in myrtle beach. don, you're on the beach right now. i assume off fallback position when the winds pick up because you don't want to be on that beach with the sand whipping around is. >> can you see us, anderson? i don't know. our fallback position is this hotel which is built to withstand a hurricane many times more than the hurricane we're going to experience here. i don't want to test that, but that's what we're told. so that is our fallback position. anderson, people don't often heed warnings. i know they're not in some places but here it looks like they are. take a look at this. just miles and miles of coast here and in myrtle beach there
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are a couple stragglers but for the most part it's media. the tide has been going in and out. we had high tide at 11:30. . some folks are staying. we have people who live inland. they come to this hotel because it's so safe and secure and their homes are not as safe but one person is not here, she's riding it out, that's gabrielle cargill and she joins us via skype. gabrielle, are you doing? >> good, how are you guys? >> great, i understand you've been here for eight years, 25 years old. why did you decide to ride it out? >> a lot of people don't have the financial option to leave. all of my family is here and it would be an impossible task to move all four of us and seven animals inland. we've been through a few hurricanes before so i'm confident we'll stand through this one. i was here when i was a child
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for fran and that was probably the most devastating hurricane i've seen and that was almost 20 years ago. >> so you're sure of this decision. you know what officials are saying, that you should get out, your life -- you can't get your life back, that you can get belongings and property, you can redo that. you understand that all, but for you it's more personal? >> this is just my home. if it's going to be destroyed, i have no where else to go. this is where my family is. >> i understand you have animals you're concerned about and i'm told you're close to the beach. just about 300 feet off the beach where you're staying? your parents are closer?
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>> yes. >> so you're good. all right, gabrielle, we wish you the best of luck. thank you very much. if you need anything, you know how to get in touch with us, you be safe. >> thanks, guys. >> gabrielle cargill, 25 years old, she's going to ride it out in myrtle beach. this is what we're seeing here. empty beach and the tide going in and out. you see heavy clouds again because it's ominous. as i drove in here today you can tell something terrible is brewing out there in the atlantic. you are watching cnn's special coverage of this hurricane. we have crews up and down the coast and we'll carry it for you live. make sure you stay tuned. lly. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. that's right, $36,000. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. my unlimited 2% cash back is more than just a perk, it's our healthcare.
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we've obviously been focusing intensely on hurricane florence, we'll continue our coverage in just a moment but we have to cover something the president tweeted out earlier today which shows where some of his thoughts and attention is today. in addition to saying fema is prepared for the storm. the president is defending his administration's response to hurricanes in puerto rico. he's doing it by denying facts. he's making up facts and, quite frankly, offending an awful lot of people, people who have lost loved ones in puerto rico. the president earlier today tweeted out, 3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit puerto rico. when i left the island after the storm had hit, they had anywhere from six to 18 deaths. as time went by it did not go up by much, then a long time later they started to report really large numbers like 3,000. this was done by the democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when i was
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successfully raising billions of dollars to help rebuild puerto rico. if a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them on to the list. bad politics. i love puerto rico. i'm not sure where to begin. we should point out this 3,000 number, the government of puerto rico sponsored, paid a lot of money for gw university to spend months studying the death tolls and they came up with the 3,000 number. also a harvard university study in conjunction with other universities in puerto rico did a study that also showed similar numbers. cnn's own reporting, interviewing funeral directors also showed thousands of deaths. so, in fact, the government of puerto rico and the government of the u.s. has been down playing the death toll for much of this past year saying the official death toll was 64. it's only now that this study
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has been completed that the government in puerto rico has gotten behind these numbers as has the federal government. the president is now denying the truth. he's just making this up saying 3,000 people did not die. bill weir is in san juan, puerto rico, for a special he's going to be airing next week about the one-year anniversary of the storm and how puerto rico is doing. bill, i can't imagine what people who have lost friends and loved ones in san juan and elsewhere in puerto rico think about the president of the united states denying that 3,000 puerto ricans, or nearly 3,000 puerto ricans have died as a result of this storm. >> it's the late nest in a stri of abhorrent affronts to the folks here who have suffered misery that most of us would never imagine. let's be honest. if it had happened in iowa where they didn't have power for eight months and were