tv Shepard Smith Reporting FOX News September 13, 2018 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT
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a nonprofit that brings together veterans and first responders. you can go to their website. check them out. i'm dana perino. thanks for joining me today. up next, here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 along the coast of north carolina where hurricane florence is already bashing the coast and the governor is giving a new warning. >> this is a powerful storm that can kill. >> shepard: the monster storm getting bigger now. forecasters say as a miles per hour down grade, it could still be life threatening. >> it's not the category. it is the epic amounts of flooding we're going to have. >> shepard: we'll hear from the head of the national hurricane center live and from somebody that is ignoring all the warnings, taking his chances to ride out the storm. let's get to it.
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>> shepard: hurricane florence is the news from the fox news deck today. don't underestimate the storm. that's the warning from federal and state officials this afternoon as hurricane florence closes in and the outer bands have begun lashing the carolinas. we want to take a look at the latest satellite images. the store is not yet ashore. it's right at 100 miles east southeast of wrightsville beach and wilmington. that is the spot where they believe it will come ashore sometime overnight. the hurricane force winds are already battering the coast from wrightsville beach and myrtle grove, topsail beach, atlantic city, moorehead city, all the way up to cape lookout. all that area along the north carolina coast experiencing the beginning of the hurricane force winds and could go on for many hours. according to the national hurricane center, the report of
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deadly flooding and storm surge has not changed even though the storm's winds have slowed down to 105 miles an hour. meteorologists have down graded florence to a category two. right now we know that this is the radar look. before with the satellite image, this is ground radar. now to the ground radar. you can see the first bands of rain are beginning to hit myrtle grove and the entire coast up from there. so that is myrtle grieve, wrightsville beach, topsail beach, up to swansboro, kill devil hills, all of that area of the carolina coast getting rain bands coming ashore and their first taste of hurricane force winds, at least in the areas closest to the center of circulation. you can see that on the ground radar. remember what ground radar shows is the rain, the darker the colors, the heavier the -- the
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lighter bands are less and the green is more. you can see the center of circulation, no real defined eye to this storm now. there's certainly a center of circulation. all of that is heading into the area of myrtle grove, wrightsville beach and wilmington, north carolina. the governor there sending out a warning in his wards. this is a powerful storm that can kill. my message today, don't relax. don't get complacent. stay on guard. our greatest concern about this storm remains the same. storm surge and massive flooding. both are going to be extreme. >> shepard: the north carolina lieutenant governor will be with us live in just a moment. i want to show you the coast, this is a fishing peer in atlantic beach in north carolina not far from the outer banks. you can see it's doing a number on the camera at this moment. the waves are certainly coming
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in and the winds are above 74 miles an hour or we're told they're getting the gusts by the national hurricane center. let's take a look at video of the same pier earlier today when the outer bands started moving in. you can see the end of the pier rocking back and forth. near wilmington, this is carolina beach now. is a live look in carolina beach. the beach is just about disappeared and the dunes are beginning to be topped. we'll talk live with a man that is reading out the storm there coming up. here's what it look like offshore near cape fear in north carolina. you can see the flag there beginning to be ripped apart and the waves are churning in the sea, a look at hurricane florence from space this morning at it churned closer to land. the space look is an incredible one. the storm has grown in size and larger than the states of
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north carolina and south carolina combined the right now hurricane force winds extend from the center of the storm from 80 miles in all directions. so 160 miles across of hurricane force winds. hurricane hunters have been working around the clock to try to save lives, flying into the eye of the storm to collect crucial forecasting data. in some areas, the storm surge could push water and waves up to the top of houses. here's the area of greatest concern. this area right here begins in wrightsville beach, works it's way up to wilmington. north topsail beach. all of that expecting 9-13 feet of storm surge that means above the tide levels, 9-13 more feet. plus the waves on top of that. that is a two story building or a house on stilts, a lot of troubles ahead for all of these. the storm surge during hurricane
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hugo was about eight feet. this in this area, 9 to 13 feet. just on the context, hurricane katrina in south mississippi in the small town of waveland, mississippi, 28 foot storm surge. imagine that. almost three stories just wiped out all along that coast. it will be bad here, but thankfully not that bad. the power companies are reporting users are out of power. executives have said one to three million people could lose power the next few days. north carolina's lieutenant governor, dan forest is joining us from raleigh where it looks like they could get 6-8 inches of rain. how is the state holding up, the outer banks and beyond? >> we're starting to see the beginning of the storm, shep. we've been tracking this storm a week now. it started out as a category four. there had been there a long time
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and people thought it might be a five. now it's a two and we're a half a day away, people are taking it too lightly. but storm surge is the big problem and flooding the next couple days. the storm moves up to the mountains of north carolina and the water travels back to the coast, we're going to be dealing with a mess for a long time. >> shepard: i've been looking at the rivers along silver lake, specifically the cape fear river. from the models, it looks like as the storm comes ashore, it could suck the water and flood the entire area. it look like the wilmington area, wrightsville beach eagle island and the rest could get a one-two punch. >> yeah, all of the barrier islands will get a one-two punch. it will do damage to the outser banks and charleston as well. nobody in the carolinas is
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immune to this. there's not a citizen in any part of the state. you mentioned the storm is the size of both of our states combined. you'll see serious flooding, serious rainfall. up to 40 inches. that's by far a record. the water will be taken upstream inland and then come back down stream. this will be a problem. >> shepard: we focused on the coastal areas from carolina beach to topsail beach. you get inland, fayetteville, north carolina, the inland flooding, the inland rain that you're expecting, it could be for fort bragg, hope mills. serious rain event there. >> yeah, up to 40 inches predicted. they're saying 20 is a low level around that area. so this is going to go on for days. not just a quick event.
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the storm sits there and starts to move in to the western north carolina mountains. they've had a lot of rain there already. saturated. so these rivers flood quite afternoon. we're dealing with floods in fayetteville, lumberton from two years ago. haven't recovered yet and they're going to get hit again. >> shepard: lieutenant governor, thank you for being here. all the best to yours across the carolinas. >> thank you. >> shepard: ken graham is here from miami and the national hurricane center. your predictions the last day appear to be spot on. >> yeah, they do. we were talking about wrapping the preparedness up yesterday because of the on set of the winds this morning. it came true. these outer bands as you said, you made a great point earlier talking about the winds of the hurricane force winds, 70, 80 miles away from the center. we can't just focus on the center. the outer bands are damaging with the hurricane force winds. >> shepard: do you think your surge totals will hold up?
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so many people on social media are going, there's no way they're going to get a 13 foot surge from a category two storm. i keep saying, it has four energy, not two energy. >> that's what we have to consider. the last couple decades, 24 years in the weather service, shep, i've seen these storms independent of the category. when everybody closes their eyes, all they see is the wind. the reality, these impacts are independent of the category and a slow large storm is our nemesis. it keeps pushing the water. may not come initially but has plenty of time to keep pushing it inland. the storm surge values could be several miles inland. >> shepard: give us an idea what the next couple days look like. >> this slows down as predicted. you think about the timeline here. this right here is 8:00 p.m. saturday. 8:00 a.m. sunday. it's going to take a real slow path here. as a result, copious amounts of
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rain and storm surge. just keeps battling the coastline as the winds keep on for a while. it's not just about the initial here. you think about getting hurt force winds. the damaging part is when it lasts. >> shepard: when the center of circulation goes over land, will it begin to rain itself out or will that take time? >> it takes time. there's so much moisture in these systems. you really look at the rainfall. that's one of the points that we've been making. i keep stressing it. it's not just a coastal event. these rainfall totals are staggering. up to 40 inches of rain. inland, look at raleigh. 6 to 10 inches. virginia, 4 to 6. asheville possibly. that's just in general. sometimes you get these systems slowing down and you get training effect with storms going over. values could go up. they slide in different
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directions depending on the uncertainty of the path of this storm. so mudslides, flash flooding, significant flooding on the rivers. this is inland impact as well. >> shepard: i wonder about the mountains, too? >> yeah, i keep talking about that. i think about it. i look at the map. step back and look the opposite direction and think 6-10 inches. i've been up in there a lot and really it's a beautiful area. i think about that and how the water will just channel and you get the flash floodings. very dangerous. this could flow and be damaging as it flows very fast. >> shepard: i know you're mighty busy there. we appreciate it. ken graham at the national hurricane center. much more ahead as we track hurricane florence. we'll talk to somebody that says he's not leaving his beach town despite the mandatory evacuation. up next, a live report from the coast as florence moves in. oh, my goodness. the pier. we'll be watching that throughout the day.
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...you could learn you're from ireland... ...donegal, ireland... ...and your ancestor was a fisherman. with blue eyes. just like you. begin your journey at ancestry.com. >> shepard: along the north carolina coast, they're preparing for a direct hit. in wrightsville beach, which is just east of wilmington on the coast side, official -- emergency officials are telling people to get off the barrier island. >> give me your next of kin now. we don't know what it will be and we're limited in what we can
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do once the storm hits to save somebody. so like i said, if you decide to stay and, you know, the storm is upon us, there's nobody to call. >> shepard: and it looks like wrightsville beach is a bulls eye. the eye crossing right over it and bringing with it a huge surge of water. rick leventhal is live on wrightsville beach this afternoon. hi, rick. >> hi, shep. we're getting heavier rain and the wind is picking up. the only people on the streets are police officers and a couple fire trucks amount big fire truck and another one just rolled up here next to the fishi fishing pier here at the main street in wrightsville beach, which is completely deserted. there's a bayside over there. this island is about four miles long. very thin. everything here obviously pretty much at sea level.
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you can see the new homes. we showed you them. perhaps vulnerable. depends on the storm surge. if you look at the fishing pier, the only concrete fishing pier in the state of north carolina. that thing is allegedly hurricane proof. it's taking a beating now from some of those waves coming in as florence approaches. it's not bad right now but we expect by 8:00 p.m. we'll start feeling hurricane force winds and get worse throughout the night and all day friday into saturday. we're told we could be in heavy downpours of 20 to 30 inches of rain and the storm surge still said to be up to 10 feet, which would put most of these structures in at least a first floor foot of water. >> shepard: i look at the specifics. the national hurricane center is predicting 9-13 feet in wrightsville beach.
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that will be a shame. >> yeah. you look around here, the homes are on stilts. the house next to us -- paul, show that blue house there. it's got a ground floor with living space. that will be under water. the upstairs will probably be in water if we get that predicted storm surge. >> shepard: be safe. thank you. coming up a mayor in a beach town in north carolina says the power is flickering and the water is raising. that's atlantic beach. i'll talk with the mayor next.
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like a ghost town. this is -- we'll have a live look. there it is. that's the waves already barrelling down on the shore there. jonathan hunt is on the beach himself. hey, jonathan. >> shep, we've been getting good wind gusts here already. with several hours from what will be the worst of hurricane florence hitting north myrtle beach where i'm standing right now. when the worst comes, it will according to the forecasters will be very bad indeed. you showed live pictures of the atlantic beach pier earlier. that's a preview of what we'll see here. this is the cherry grove pier. an iconic pier, completely destroyed by hurricane hugo in 1989. it was rebuild then. the observation deck at the end was destroyed again by floyd in 1999. everybody here, shep, hoping that this iconic peeve will survive florence.
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despite the dangers here, as you can see, a couple of people still out on the beach knowing that they have a few hours before it gets really too dangerous to be out here. we spoke to one woman earlier today act why she was refusing to leave. listen here. >> we have to wait and see where the storm is going. i also think sometimes the news channels hype it up too much. >> we're trying to keep you safe. >> that of course, shep, is what we're all trying to do, give information to the public directly from officials so everybody can be as safe as possible in what every official up and down the coast of north and south carolina says is still a very dangerous storm, shep. >> shepard: it looks like the worst of it will hit myrtle at 3:00, 4:00 a.m. >> yeah, that is not long after the high tide, this is the big danger here, shep. the storm surge and the flooding
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that will do the most damage rather than the wind. you look up here straight up the beach hear. look to the end of those where the tall buildings are. that's where an inlet comes in. i want to show you a satellite map of where we are. we're in the bottom left-hand corner. look at the inlet. it wraps around hundreds of homes. if you get a 4 to 9 foot storm surge, you can see all of those homes are going to be in very grave danger of severe flooding, shep. >> shepard: predicted that the flooding will hit all of them. jonathan hunt along the shore. thank you. hurricane florence is now starting to unleash on north carolina and atlantic beach is just one coastal community in its crosshairs. let's get to the mayor that stayed behind. trace cooper is his name. he's still on the island. he said most of the people in
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atlantic beach have left. mr. mayor, how are you? >> so far so good. >> shepard: last we talked you were staying in the operations center. >> that's right. i'm in the center now. >> shepard: your family owns the pier. >> yes. me grandfather built it in 1959. we still own it. it's seen it's share of hurricanes. when i looked at it this morning, i was surprised at how high the waves were already. >> shepard: we're watching them live. you wonder how much it can take. more importantly, the people left behind. any clue how many people are still there? >> yeah, i've seen a few people out and about. my guess is probably 80% of our town has evacuated. there shouldn't be many people left. >> shepard: what are you
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expecting for your coastal structures? >> we have a very strong dune line and a good beach program. the photos of the pier, there's no dunes there. that's the worst part of the island. unfortunately my house is there. the rest of the town has a strong dune line. i'm hopeful that those will sustain this storm surge. >> shepard: atlantic beach, those that don't know is a barrier island on the other side of moorhead still. that's bogue sound there. it could fill and flood and the whole area could flood. the worst case scenario is sadly upon us. >> yeah, i think so. people focuses this on the category two but having to power of a four. i can confirm that on the ground here. i've been through several of these while i've been mayor.
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this feels worse than the category two direct hits we've had or category one district hits we've had. the storm surge is a real concern. >> shepard: describe what you've been hearing and seeing, if you could. >> our wind gusts, they -- my guess is they're probably over 70 now. heavy winds, whistling rain. you know, going sideways. signs rattling. these are the things that you so i along the streets. i've been to the south side and ocean front earlier today around high tide. the sound side had not overwashed any sea walls yet. that's good news. the ocean side, you guys have been looking at those pictures all morning. >> shepard: the bad news for atlantic beach, indian beach, down the barrier island, you have ten more hours of this. all the best, mr. mayor.
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>> thank you. >> shepard: trace cooper staying behind there. forecasters are warning people do not focus on the wind speeds on the category numbers. instead, the national hurricane center tells us to tell you, it's the huge amount of water that the storm is expected to dump and not just on the coast. we'll have the latest forecast from the fox extreme weather center next on fox news channel. america's choice for news and information on cable. what, really? craig and shelia broke up!? no, craig!? what happened? i don't know. is she okay? ♪ craig and sheila broke up! craig and sheila!? ♪ as long as office gossip travels fast, you can count on geico saving folks money. craig and sheila broke up! what!? fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.
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>> rain and moore rain and days of rain. forecasters say that's a big concern about hurricane florence as it makes its way ashore. take a look at the rainfall totals. these numbers are from the hurricane. 38 inches, 45 inches, 21 inches, 17, 16. a lot of rain. our chief meteorologist rick reichmuth is live with a look at what we can expect and coming. i can see hurricane -- there he
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is. rick, how are we doing? looking for myself there. yeah, really interesting storm. the center of the storm is what got disrupted yesterday. one level in the atmosphere that was some shear, started to break it away. look at the storm. still looks good. looks good on all four quadrants of it. when you have a storm like, this it needs an exhaust. we have like a grill and you put the lid on it, it goes out. if you have the leadoff, the fire goes out. that's what the storms are like. you can see that outflow extending up around parts of north, west virginia. here's the center of it. it's slowing down. you can see the forward movement at 10 miles an hour. i don't think that's changed from the national hurricane center. looks like you can get the next reading and it's a lot slower.
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so it's not moving much. that's why we'll see the rainfall totals. you said it, shepard, the wind has come dune. those are the strongest winds that have come down at the very center of the storm. but the hurricane force winds extend out on 80 miles either side. 160 miles across they'll see the hurricane force winds and don't move. we'll have it a long time. that's why we're so concerned. you can see the last jog there. made that move to the west. keeps going west before it goes southwest. that happened over the water, maybe over land. we still don't know unfortunately. it's been a tough forecast. tornado warnings in effect or watches in effect. that's the case all the way through the weekend. take a look at these power outages piling up by saturday. we'll be talking about power outages from maryland, the interior sections towards the southern appalachians, north governor mountains, throughout much of south carolina.
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the worst of it here along the coast from the prolonged period of wind and rain. the storm surge you've been talking about, take a look at the wind bars, this is saturday. we're going to continue to see the same on-shore flow here. so the water piles up there past cape fear-wilmington and in the pamlico sound, goes towards new bern. towns far inland that are on and inlet or a river like the pamlico river. all the water will stay in there and the storm surges are going to be really extreme all the across the interior section. factor in the rain. this is the gfc model putting out numbers like 45 inches. this is incredible rainfall. because we're so close to this time frame, we start to get a little more reliance on these numbers. the european model stretches farther south in towards parts of south carolina. the point is, we don't know who it will be that gets these numbers. but you have a big swath of area that is getting a lot of rain and any spot really has that
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chance of getting one of those bands that moves over and getting incredible rainfall totals. lots of flooding with this. we're probably not done until sunday evening to monday. we are in for a long haul. >> shepard: back behind you, the 45 is in the middle of a national forest. that 38 that you see there, that is emerald isle, indian beach. atlantic beach. i just talked to the mayor. 38 inches of rain. they cannot take that. >> they can't. maybe 45 is there or 50 miles that way or that way. still wants to go somewhere. water wants to go to the lowest point. it's gravity and trying to get to the ocean. you have the ocean piled up to the shore. the water doesn't have anyplace to go it's going to spread out and flood across the area. >> shepard: rick reichmuth, a long way to go. thank you. as the feds prepare response teams for hurricane florence, the nation's top disaster
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official, the man that oversees the response, is now under serious investigation. fox news has confirmed that the department of homeland security inspector general is looking to whether the fema administrator brock long, misused government resources for his own personal travel. specifically whether he violated rules by using fema cars for weekend trips back home to north carolina. this same issue came up with a couple of other trump administration officials. brock long said that doing something unethical is not in his dna and he's cooperating. right now his focus is 100% on this storm. mike emanuel is live in washington. mike? >> good afternoon, shep. fox has told the department of homeland security general is looking into whether the fema's travel is governed by statute. he spoke about the probe earlier
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today. >> i would intentionally never run a program incorrectly. bottom line, if we made mistakes, we'll work with the program to get corrected. doing something unethical is not part of my dna or my track record. we'll work with the omg. >> the timing is lousy with brock long and his fema team about to be tested by hurricane florence. >> shepard: yeah, they have to be busy. >> no doubt about it. they're coordinating with the local partners and advising people in the zone. it's beyond time to get out. seven fema incident management teams and 16 urban teams have been employed. officials are warning power could be out an extended time. a coast guard admiral warning they teams won't respond quickly. >> all coast guard, small boat and cutter crews will be ready to move in as soon as it's safe to do so. for those in the path of the storms, stay off the water.
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coast guard search and rescue resources will be degraded or unavailable before, during and after the storm. >> the message is those that refuse to evacuate will likely be on their own for at least some period of time. shep? >> shepard: thanks, mike. the warning from officials has been very clear. get out and away from the hurricane before it hits. ahead, we'll hear from somebody staying behind where the conditions look, well, where is the beach? it's under the water. this is carolina beach in north carolina. if there's storm surge projections are right, all of it will be under water. a guy that plans to ride it out joins us live next. so a tree falls on your brand new car and totals it.
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8:00 p.m. last night if they're going to go. they said the getting was good until then. now it's not. it's less than five feet above sea level. that's the whole town. the mayor warns it could see a storm surge up to 13 feet. that put the whole thing under. officials say they worry that 1,000 of the 6,300 residents are behind. rob is a charter boat captain. he was on skype now. how are you doing? >> doing well. all things considered. >> shepard: what are you seeing, hearing? >> we're starting to catch outer bands of rain. the wind is not that strong right now. there's tidal flooding earlier. everything is okay. >> shepard: who are you with? >> my girlfriend and animals. >> shepard: animals?
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>> a dog and two cats. >> shepard: you got a plan? >> yeah, we're going to relocate to the middle part of the island in about an hour to higher ground. we're on the north end, which is not real friendly the flooding. we're on pilings but it's 8 1/2 feet high with a surge projection of 9 to 13 feet. that's a little scary. >> shepard: right. so if they're right about the projections, your place is under water. >> yeah. basically. >> shepard: and are you having any second thoughts? just curious. >> no. since it's been down graded, we'll be okay. the fact that we're moving to the middle part of the island is comfortabling. >> shepard: carolina beach, for people that are not familiar, is kind of around the bend and up the coast. so if you're -- bald head island is the tip and carolina beach is north of there it looks like they're figuring your storm surge will put your house under water and you could have up to
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three feet of rain. is that disquieting at all? >> it's very concerning. >> shepard: i wonder why you made -- for viewers that -- i lived there a long time. we didn't always evacuate. i get it. can you explain to people why it is? >> i had a feeling it would weaken. flooding is always a concern. i thought it would be manageable. >> shepard: yeah, you're going -- you have a wet side and a dry side. you're on the dry side when the storm comes in. then they think it's going to track down along there. if the waters come up and you feel uncomfortable, is there a way for you to get out or are you trapped? >> i think we're trapped. >> shepard: well, i don't know. i'm not the parent here. so i won't. i will wish you the best. good luck to the girlfriend and the dogs and stuff. >> all right. thank you. >> shepard: good luck. we'll check back in. pulling for him. all of them. they say there's about 1,000
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people left there. hope is good. steve harrigan is in north topsail beach in north carolina. one of the areas in the bulls eye. north topsail is. how is it going, steve? >> shepard, starting to feel it now. the rain is coming down. good wide caps behind me. a beautiful slate gray sky. the beach begins to disappear little by little. we've seen people get out as late as this morning. getting out is not easy with airlines cancelling, airports closing, lines for gas. a lot of shortages. we spoke to one person that has been keeping their gas station open as a sign of aid to the community. here's that person. >> i'm so personally involved in this community and they are with us that we're doing what we can do because they would do it for us if the shoe was on the other
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foot. >> there's one person staying behind for a noble reason. they have more than 108 shelters opened up, more than 7,000 feel in the shelters. it's going to get worse the next couple days. more than 3,000 national guard have been called up. shepard? >> shepard: you're just about here. that puts a lot of water where you are, steve. how are folks prepare somethipr. >> the message has been cleared. you're hearing a mike tyson punch and a monster storm. most storms get a few people that take it lightly. we're not seeing that here. the horses are boarded up and it's like a ghost town. you mentioned the rain totals and the weather updates are dry reading. one phrase struck out to me. that is "total inundation" in parts of north carolina.
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that is scary. >> shepard: i'll say it is. steve harrigan in north topsail beach. this is leylaland vittert in atlantic beach. how are you now? >> we're in between squall lines. not as much rain right now. winds are somewhere between 65 to 70 miles an hour when they gust up. what is unusual about this storm and where we are is how the wind is coming essentially from on shore offshore. there's the atlantic. you think the wind is coming this direction. it's coming this direction. the barrier islands that steve and i are on would typically be protectors from the storm surge. these islands are acting as funnels for the storm surge. the bottom of the island, the bottom of the island, the storm surge is flowing in.
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we were on the other side. there's entire streets flooded, not safe for us to drive down because of power lines, debris there. also you get a couple of moments where you can't figure out where the street ends and the canals begin. it's dangerous. the police have said at some point they're going to pull their people back off the road. they have already pulled their people off of the bridges here. most of the people in the area that we're at have decided to evacuate. heed the warnings. at least a couple in this area did not. already we've heard of a number of rescues including one of a couple that have decided to ride this storms out on a boat. that didn't last long. took about 20 of atlantic beach's bravest to get them. >> leland vittert live. thanks. we talked a lot about north carolina. too this is sort of north carolina focus. by tomorrow, the hurricane center suggests south carolina.
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and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program call or visit snooze . >> shepard: florence is a slow mover and will get to south carolina and likely myrtle beach. channelling her inner spring breaker. kristina partsinevelos is in the back of a truck. >> i'm not sure this is the way i'd spend spring break. but i am in myrtle beach. the winds have definitely picked up this afternoon. we're expecting to get a little bit less of the hurricane rains that you're seeing more in the north and northern -- north carolina versus south carolina. right now we spent the entire day speaking to peach.
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we wented to boarded up houses. there's about 60% of the population that decided to evacuate. a lot of the people are still here. you're seeing the hotels, the businesses around this area completely vacant with a few stragglers. you have reporters and police officers on this strip over here talking just about the situation. it seems like people are very confident that they can overcome this. they said to me, this is -- at least five different people. they told me at the gas station, hey, we survived hugo. we lived here 40-plus years. we can handle it. they're boarding up their houses. we believe they'll have never supplies over a week. filling their bathtubs with water in an attempt to protect their homes. overalthough, you can see it now. the wind has picked up. we're getting closer and closer to the beach area. we're expecting torrential rains on saturday as well as sunday. they put flash flood warnings. a big concern there's inland flooding because there's so many
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smaller rivers in the area back there and a lot of homes facing the rivers. so that is a big concern. there's supposed to be a curfew this evening in myrtle beach as of 7:00 p.m. businesses were asked to close shop at 5:00 p.m. eastern time yesterday. you can see not everybody is boarded up. there's a few that we'll pass shortly that have put up the wood planks. what you're seeing in the city right now is people on pickup trucks. you're seeing everybody talk to each other. i never experienced anything like this. shep, i have to admit. it's my first hurricane experience. everybody is talking to each other, asking where they're staying. i've been invited to a chicken at a neighbor's house just in case we don't have food. overall, there's a lot of optimism but it's going to be bad this weekend with the rain and flooding. back to you. >> shepard: lots of rain is on the way. enjoy the chicken dinner, winner winner. see you soon, kristina partsinevelos along the carolina coast. here's where we are.
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this is charleston, south carolina. in georgetown, north myrtle beach, light? then you begin the rest of the coast. it all inundated, this is ground radar, this is showing precipitation. you can see north myrtle beach is about the cut off. and then all the way up the coast to kill devil hills inland, to keensville and kinston and the rest. all of this will experience rain now the next 8, 10, 12 hours. and then they believe the storm will meander its way to south carolina for some low country food. for now though, hardly moving. the last official update from the hurricane center was at 2:00 eastern time. the next is at 5:00 eastern. it was then moving 10 miles an hour. it's not anymore. rick reichmuth says it's fallen to a crawl about the speed that you and i walk. coming up at the top of the
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rising. become miles inland, you can still see the storm. >> it is disastrous. >> please do not let your guard down. this is a very dangerous storm. >> neil: bracing for impact. welcome, everybody. i'm neil cavuto. florence now barreling down and getting close. here is what we know right now. the department of defense is about to hold a news conference on preparation. when they speak it, we are there. the police chief in north carolina is asking residents refusing to evacuate for next of kin information
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