from the moment clients walk in, they're able to feel like part of the family. - [spokesman] custom ink has hundreds of products for your business and free shipping. upload your logo or start your design today at customink.com. eric: we begin a new hour of continuing coverage of florence. north carolina officials calling for more mandatory evacuations today as the flood waters from that tropical storm keep rising and they are warning some to get out now or notify next of kin. it is that crucial. the death toll from the storm now standing at at least seven victims. the new evacuations are for those living within one mile of the banks of the river that is expected to rise to record levels. now florence crawling along south carolina, dropping torrential rain and swamping the low-lying areas. welcome to our brand new hour of "america's news headquarters." i'm eric shawn. >> i'm arthel neville.

we begin with fox team coverage. we will go to steve herrigan. steve? reporter: the north carolina governor a short time ago called this storm relentless and excruciating. while those hurricane force winds have now left the north carolina coast, the rain continues. it has been more than 24 hours of a steady downpour here, at least 20 inches have already fallen where i am and we could see another 20 inches. that is creating very dangerous situations on the roads for anyone trying to move around. we got a look with the police at the damage along the coast this morning. some of the houses suffering significant damage, some roofs off and mobile homes were hit the hardest. the real question now is trying to get electricity back up for so many people. hundreds of thousands of people in the dark, often cut off by the water. power crews have been out around the clock to try and make those houses much more liveable situation.

as far as the rescues go, we have seen more than 500 water rescues, and the military is playing an increasing role. more than 7,000 forces, including national guard and the army, are using high water vehicles and helicopters to try to bring people out of this flood water to safety. arthel, back to you. arthel: steve, thank you very much there in north topsail beach, north carolina. thank you. eric? eric: for more of our continuing coverage, we turn to rick, where the cape fear river is expected to inundate the surrounding area. we can see you there at the moment. what's it like right now? reporter: well, this river hit record highs yesterday and is now around high tide, it's already over its banks again. you can see it coming up and over the seawall behind me. i can show you this lower cape fear river here and along the water street, where there is water in the street, of course. this is a concern with flash

flood warnings now in effect across wilmington and across many parts of north carolina. we have been driving around the city. we have seen a lot of cleanup in progress today now that the rain has started to slow down. front end loaders on some major thoroughfares trying to clear big branches, big trees and debris out of the roads so they can get utility crews in to get the power back on. of course, there are roughly a million power customers across the state of north carolina still in the dark. we also saw another area where it appeared that a tornado may have touched down. there was a roof on a warehouse type building that was completely ripped off, and a line from that roof to a massive tree that was uprooted and knocked down, pulling up big chunks of sidewalk there. just beyond that, if we looked in a line, we could see more trees splintered and down. there are hundreds of trees down across this city, and the trees coming down are a major concern. there was a woman and her infant child killed here in wilmington yesterday when a tree fell on their house and of course, with the ground saturated, a lot more trees and power lines could come

down. eric: that was just so tragic and heartbreaking when you saw the firefighters kneeling and praying in front of the house. what's the latest on road closures? reporter: it's remarkable that just in this one city of wilmington, 200 roads have been closed, and there are stretches of i-40 and i-95, the two major north/south and east/west interstates in north carolina that have been shut down because of flood waters on the highway. low-lying areas are getting hit hard and they are predicting the floods could continue and get worse in some parts, including fayetteville. that's why they have issued more mandatory evacuation orders for people to get out of there by tomorrow. eric: people are supposed to get out where you are within a mile of the river that's expected to crest at 62 feet. perhaps where you are standing right now will be under a lot of water very shortly. reporter: we'll get out of the way. arthel: 62 feet, not 62 inches. eric: no, 62 feet.

arthel: wow. one of the hardest hit areas is new bern, a riverfront town near the coast. that's where we find leyland. how is it looking where you are? reporter: bad, and getting worse, arthel. you can see the rain now coming down pretty steady, adding to the flood waters. i will get out of the way so you can see down one of the dozens of flooded streets here. we are told the flooding goes for miles back there. right now, in the past couple of minutes, we had some folks from the cherry point fire department show up and they are now going door to door, searching each one of these homes. we have seen this in hurricanes past, putting big red tape up across these doors here to signify they have been searched, nobody in until these flood waters go back down. they had about 70 rescues here earlier this morning. now the rescue teams are sort of moving ahead and farther west as the flooding continues throughout much of north

carolina. did talk to one resident whose house was flooded. he had heeded the evacuation warnings so he didn't need to be rescued, but he came back to check on his house. he said flood waters plus rain equals despair. >> well, everything in our house is ruined, i would imagine. it's just tough. we're safe, our lives are here. it's just tough. it will be replaced. despair, but what can you do? there's really nothing. until this goes away, we can't do anything about it. reporter: there really is nothing that anyone can do about this. most people who had the ability to evacuate, did evacuate and if you didn't evacuate, it is pretty much now too late. important to note, we have been saying this over and over and over again, even though the winds of florence were not that significant, were not this catastrophic kind of hurricane, the flooding that is about to come will be catastrophic. this is just the beginning. arthel: just the beginning of a

very dangerous situation. leland, what about the coastal areas? reporter: good point. new bern is about 30 miles inland and you had that combination of the storm surge and the rain that created the flooding here along the coast, major storm surge danger. we went out with one of the rescue crews from towboatussa. the coast guard got so many calls for help, they contacted them. they were searching sailboat by sailboat. you can see a couple of people decided to try to ride the storm out. a number of them were tossed up on the islands that are in the channels of north carolina. hard to imagine anyone could have survived. we didn't find anyone when we were out searching, but there had been a number of calls for distress over the past couple of days by people who were out on those boats. the fellow who was captaining that rescue boat told me there are areas even farther east, out towards the atlantic on the outer banks, that they can't even get to right now.

the seas are too rough, yet they know there are people who are cut off and who florence damaged their homes and their boats far worse than thought. could be a very critical situation over the next couple of days. arthel: indeed. leland, thank you. eric: what can we expect over the next few days? janice dean is in the weather center. janice, the storm is sitting, staying put. what do you see happening, especially when dealing with flooding over the next 48 to 72 hours? >> that is going to be the story, it's not moving over the next, say, 12 to 24 hours, 48 hours. we have already surpassed a record, so surpassing what was the record of over 24 inches from a tropical system. florence has now set an historical record for north carolina, over 38 inches near swansboro, north carolina from florence. so we are in record territory. you heard leland say lot of folks were focused on that

category. certainly it was a major hurricane for a number of days, category 4. as it weakened, as it moved inland, it became a cat 1 but remember, here in the northeast we had sandy that did devastating damage. that was an 80 mile per hour wind storm and it was the flooding and storm surge that caused all the damage. then harvey last year for southeast texas, people don't seem to realize that although it was a 4 when it made landfall, by the time it got to houston it was a tropical storm. these tropical storms can dump incredible amounts of rain if they are stationary or not budging, and that's why we have these incredible storm totals. this storm has not moved over the last 24 hours and it is not expected to move over the next 24 to 36 hours. not only do we have the flooding threat, but we have a tornado threat, we have had several reports of weak tornadoes. they are fast-moving, they do cause some structural damage. they're not particularly really strong tornadoes, but they are

just another problem with these tropical systems that move inland. so the tornado threat will exist through the evening tonight for much of southwestern north carolina in towards south carolina, but again, the big threat here is the incredible amounts of water. still getting that storm surge as well because the storm hasn't moved and you're getting that onshore flow, that push of all that atlantic moisture, so five feet, six foot storm surge on top of what we saw but historic levels moving into places like new bern yesterday. here is the track. the latest track not moving very much in the next 24 hours, then it will creep northward, finally getting picked up by a cold front and then moving towards the north and northeast. we will see part of the remnants in new york city on wednesday. flash flood, that's a quick threat of flooding that's moving into north carolina that has been existing over the last 12 to 24 hours. again, the storm has not moved, so you keep seeing all of these

rain bands moving over the exact same areas and that's why we are seeing these incredible storm totals and people are urged to evacuate along the little river and cape fear, if you are one mile away living near those rivers, you are urged to evacuate. the rivers are coming up, they are rising and they are going to crest at historic levels. here's the additional rainfall on top of the 24 or 30 inches we have already seen. six to 12 easily in and around the wilmington area up towards fayetteville, then easily inland here, we will see the potential of six to ten inches of rainfall. so this is going to be a widespread event for not only north carolina, south carolina, up towards virginia. those river flood gauges again are going to be very impressive, reaching major flooding, catastrophic flooding in some cases because the storm is moving so slowly. i will wrap up by saying we have a lot of activity in the

atlantic. it is peak season here. several systems we are watching. joyce and helene and we also have what was isaac that disintegrated but we are still watching the area of low pressure that could perhaps reintensify and perhaps move into the gulf of mexico over the next couple of days. but all eyes, of course, are focused on florence and the incredible amounts of rainfall. i mean, first responders are trying to get out to save people. it's really incredible. prayers at this point. eric: absolutely. our prayers for the first responders and the folks involved. it's like a slow-moving, slow-rolling disaster. >> it really is. eric: still to come. still what happened with super storm sandy. >> we won't see the real damage until next week. it will take weeks, months, maybe even years. some of the coastline has probably been recarved. eric: we have seen that up here,

too. janice, thank you. arthel: prayers indeed. i do know what flood waters can do, having lived through hurricane katrina. it is about the water. we will continue our coverage of florence, including a look at conditions in south carolina. and an update on both states' efforts to combat price gouging. plus paul manafort, copping a plea. what it could mean for the russia investigation and what could he tell prosecutors about that trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer? we will talk about it. woman: it felt great not having hepatitis c. it's like a load off my shoulders. i was just excited for it to be over. harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. it's been prescribed to more than a quarter million people and is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni.

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arthel: the search and rescue teams are working feverishly to help residents trapped by rising flood waters. florence is unleashing them on the midatlantic and authorities warning residents the worst is yet to come. vice admiral scott bushman is the atlantic area commander for the u.s. coast guard and joins me now. vice admiral bushman, if you could tell us, as conditions change due to the rising water, what is the coast guard's most pressing operation as we speak? >> right now, talking to you from our coast guard air station in north carolina. it's a very busy place right now. we have crews, two different types of helicopters been out flying all day in support of the

state of north carolina, local officials and they have been rescuing folks trapped by high water. arthel: help us understand, vice admiral, if you could, the coast guard logistics. you just told me a little about what you're doing, but you make it seem easy. we know it's not. talk to us about what does it take to get all of the personnel and assets in place, and how many people and machinery are deployed? >> no, it is not easy. we have been working at this for over a week now. we watched this storm come. we are part of the broader federal effort in support of the states of north carolina and south carolina and we have been making sure our assets are out of harm's way. we have been bringing assets from all over the coast guard, ready to respond as quickly as possible. so we have been working this real hard for over a week now. arthel: when you talk about coordination with state and federal officials, how involved is that, and how does that work? >> it is very involved.

we planned for this throughout the year. we do, in the coast guard alone, just since last hurricane season, we have done over 700 different exercises across our whole mission portfolio. many of those with state, local and federal officials. and we work very hard for any kind of scenario, particularly hurricane season. arthel: and when you do these practice runs, if you will, what does that involve? are you actually trying to assimilate real-life conditions? >> that's right. we simulate real-life conditions. the other thing we do is look at lessons learned from the very busy hurricane season last year. we look at what we did right, what we can do better, and make improvements. we made a number of improvements from last year's hurricane season. arthel: improvements like what, sir? >> give you an example. one of them is we put in an ability to track our own assets so we know where they are. that way, we can get them to the people that need them as

efficiently as possible and operate safer not only for ourselves but with our state and local partners. arthel: i see the coast guard as indestructible super heroes but talk to us about just how much peril do the coast guard personnel, men and women, face in hurricanes, and the rescue operations that follow? >> this is a very dangerous storm. it remains a very dangerous and destructive storm. there are several more days of very heavy rain in parts of north carolina and south carolina. it's going to be incredible inland flooding. our crew has been out there flying all day in incredibly challenging conditions. we have coast guard air crews that are the world's best. they fly in the most extreme conditions. some of the ones i talked to today told me stories about some of the conditions they flew in today with 40 miles an hour winds, driving the rain sideways, bringing water into their helicopter and even taking their internal communications systems out. these are very challenging situations but we prepare for

them. arthel: when the internal communication system goes down, what happens next? >> they resort to team training. they train for that type of thing. just makes it a little more challenging. arthel: i wanted to ask you a personal question, if i may. do you get a chance, you as well as the other men and women out there working very hard, get a chance to communicate with your family? you have families at home and they are waiting for your safe return. >> my family is in safety. i will tell you many of the folks out there responding, the coast guard as well as other agencies, they are also survivors of this storm as well. they have been displaced from their home. many of them won't be able to return for awhile and don't know what they will return home to. arthel: vice admiral bushman, thank you very much, sir. we appreciate your work. good luck and many prayers to you, sir. thank you. >> thank you very much for having me. eric: absolutely. as florence floods town after town across the carolinas and is being blamed right now for seven deaths, there's another threat that lies ahead. warnings about the possibility

of theft and people who want to take advantage with price gouging. north carolina is preparing for that. live coverage continues. meanwhile, in the northeast, dozens of gas line explosions destroyed homes north of boston. there was anger and outrage over how this could happen. what the gas company is saying about that. >> we are sorry. we are deeply concerned about the inconvenience. this is the sort of thing that a gas distribution company hopes never happens.

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ellis, what more can you tell us from there? reporter: hey, so we have been in this area, mayrion county, a we have spoken to people more inland, about an hour and a half from myrtle beach, whether they are from this area or have come here because they had to evacuate places near the coast like myrtle beach, the thing we keep hearing from people is this storm has not been as treacherous as they were expecting, but here where we are now, this is a spot that clearly took a hit. this is the most structural damage we have seen since we have been out here the past couple of days. this is the marion county airport. you can see damage to a couple of helicopters over here, lying there on the ground. next to it, you can see hangars that have been completely destroyed. if we walk a little bit across this parking lot, you can see some of what the wind did. officials have said this is

really a rain event. it has been so far in this area and they expect it to continue being that throughout this weekend, but the national weather service says that wind gusts gusts, they say they recorded wind gusts hitting 60 miles an hour. it seems like the wind at least got this area pretty badly as well. this right here seems to be part of the hangar that was just a few steps from where we were. it seems that it has flown and traveled over into this grassy area. we look a little more behind me, you can see some of the other damage we are seeing in this area. again, this is really the worst we have seen so far. the national guard says that in south carolina, they have not had to do any rescues. they say a lot of people heeded the warnings and followed the advice, the mandatory evacuation, and left where they were supposed to leave and came to safety. one person has died in south carolina, but officials say on

the whole, they do feel like there has been a lot of good cooperation between citizens listening to the orders they have given and getting themselves to safety, and a lot of people have come to this area to stay safe. actually, florence, a lot of people are in hotels, staying with friends, family, things of that nature and are prepared to stay through the weekend in the event of potential flooding which officials here say they are still worried about. arthel: indeed they are. thank you very much. eric? eric: natural disasters are stressful and terrible enough without some people trying to take advantage of the situation with price gouging and in some cases, looting. north carolina's attorney general is trying to prevent that and mr. stein joins us from raleigh. mr. attorney general, thank you for joining us. >> it's a pleasure. eric: it's so offensive. it's disgusting and onerous and horrendous when people try to exploit these situations. what do you want people in your state to know? >> well, first of all, folks need to understand that

businesses are just our neighbors like anyone else, and a lot of them are going above and beyond trying to provide needed goods and services to their community. that said, there are a few out there that are trying to exploit people's desperation to make an extra buck. it's wrong, it's against the law in north carolina, and my office will enforce that law. eric: covering these things, you want to get a gallon of water, a plastic thing, they will say ten or 20 bucks or gas, goes right up. >> those are the two main issues we have been hearing about. we have received about 450 complaints so far. the majority of them have to deal with gas, and the bulk of the rest are water and hotel rooms. eric: what type of situation with hotel rooms? >> well, folks who are leaving the coast are going inland and are finding hotel rates are much higher than what were advertised, and hotels cannot exploit a situation just like a

retailer can't. so my office is in the process of following up on these complaints. as i mentioned, we have the most concern in gas and we have begun an investigation into one or two retailers down east, where we have gotten a number of complaints. eric: you talk about this type of price increases, can you tell us what the laws are? so our viewers can know. oftentimes you book a hotel, not even a natural disaster, it's three times more the price on saturday than on monday. what are the specific laws when you are dealing with whether it's a hurricane, a storm or any other type of possibility? >> our price gouging law in north carolina goes into effect whenever there's a declaration of emergency, which the governor did last week, and it will stay into effect for at least 45 days, although the governor can extend it. during the price gouging statute's application, businesses may not engage in price increases that are unreasonably excessive. what that means is as we look to

see what they have been charging in the prior two months, and we ask are there any justifications for why your prices went up. now, if their costs have gone up, if they had to pay a whole bunch of extra money to get something shipped in, then that's a justifiable price increase. if all they have done is raise their prices in order to make an extra dollar based on people's desperation, that's illegal and that's what we will not tolerate. eric: what if a gas station says look, i got extra and because of this i'm not getting a delivery for three weeks so i will jack my price up because i will be out of business and can't sell anything? does that pass muster or do they get nailed? >> well, everything is -- each case is different and we have to do an investigation to find out what the prices were and what the basis for their price increase is. each case is unique to its own situation. eric: at the end, do you expect after this is over, some

prosecutions and fines or do they get jail time? what happens? >> no, definitely not jail time. we have, in the past and prior, north carolina unfortunately has a number of these natural disasters, hurricanes, that come through, and when we investigate and find violations, we prosecuted in the past. my hope is there are no prosecutions this time. my hope is that businesses are not violating our law and when we notify them about their customers' concerns, they make sure they get into compliance immediately. but if they don't, we absolutely will enforce the law against violators. eric: mr. attorney general, certainly hope it's not happening. you have had reports already and we hope you don't have any prosecutions, but tell you what, with all due respect, you throw one person in jail, throw them in the pokey just for one night for doing this. put them on the front page of the paper, the newspapers, and this will stop. >> i understand the impulse, eric, but we have to follow the law. eric: i understand that, too.

thank you for listening. we are thinking of the people in your state, of course, and south carolina. hope everyone pulls through and you do, too. thank you for spending some time with us. >> i appreciate that. eric: of course. arthel? arthel: another big story this weekend. new developments in the deadly gas explosions that rocked three massachusetts communities north of boston and now, investigators say the owner of the gas company doing work in the area at the time is linked to three prior gas line blasts. brian ennis has more. reporter: at least 80 homes and businesses were on fire in three massachusetts communities 30 minutes north of boston on thursday. three homes exploded. the blue markers on this map show different gas fires in andover, north andover and lawrence. 8600 homes and businesses were affected. technicians and police have been going door to door to turn off gas meters and inspect homes, as people are still sleeping in

shelters. they shut off the power to some 14,000 people who are still in the dark. governor charlie baker declared a state of emergency effectively firing the columbia gas company for their inadequate response to this disaster, and putting another utility company in charge of the restoration. the ntsb just held a press conference. they are investigating the cause. they say there were indications of gas line overpressurization. >> we know that there was a pressure increase indicated at the pipeline controller's console in columbus, ohio. certainly we will interview that pipeline controller. reporter: columbia gas was involved in gas explosions in 2015, '14 and 2012, which injured 21 people. the company was working on updating gas lines in the area this week in that state. >> imagine you're just cooking lunch for your daughter when all

of a sudden, the landlord comes up screaming that there's a fire in the building. a resident of this six-family home in lawrence tells me that's exactly what happened to her. look what's left of this building. the roof is off in the corner, the windows are shattered. all of them came running out. a couple of neighbors came in knocking on the door to help people get out. a 10-year-old boy was saved. many of these residents have lost everything, but feel lucky to be alive. >> we just ran out. i didn't want to risk staying in there and something happening to my daughters. reporter: 25 people were injured, tragically one man died. an 18-year-old was sitting in his car in the driveway when a gas explosion in his home caused the chimney to fall on his car. he died in the hospital. on another note real quick, a lawrence police officer is being hailed a hero. he ran to try to rescue that

child while his home was on fire. his home burned to the ground, that police officer, as he helped families in the area. arthel: thank goodness to that police officer. what a tragic story. brian, thank you so much. eric: really is. one-time trump campaign chairman paul manafort, you know about him, struck a plea deal with special counsel robert mueller's prosecutors. what does that mean for his cooperation in mueller's russia investigation? >> he accepted responsibility and wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. but what i do count on is boost®. delicious boost® high protein nuritional drink now has 33% more protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals boost® high protein. be up for life. they won't hike your ratest foover one mistake.

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eric: president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort pleaded guilty to two charges related to his lobbying work for ukrainian clients. in that deal with federal prosecutors, manafort agreed to cooperate with special counsel robert mueller in his ongoing russia investigation. we have more details on what this could mean. reporter: so fox news learned yesterday that former trump campaign manager paul manafort's plea deal includes full cooperation with special counsel robert mueller. the deal requires him to assist the russia investigation and in effect, transfers manafort's allegiance to the government who may rely on his testimony in the future. news of the deal broke just days before manafort was slated to face trial number two over his previous ukrainian political consulting work. now his legal team's hunkering down for the storm. >> tough day for mr. manafort.

he's accepted responsibility and wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. he's accepted responsibility and this is for conduct that dates back many years, and everybody should remember that. reporter: president trump's own team is circling the wagons, telling the press pool yesterday this had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign. it is totally unrelated. at the end of august, president trump himself tweeted his sympathy for his one-time senior aide, saying i feel very badly for paul manafort and his wonderful family. justice took a 12-year-old tax case among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and you can like michael cohen, he refused to break, make up stories in order to get a deal. such respect for a brave man. federal prosecutors landed another d.c. power broker right in their crosshairs, former

obama white house counsel greg craig. prosecutors are now considering bringing charges against craig related to his lobbying work on behalf of a political group also associated with ukraine. craig, like manafort, is believed to have conducted the work without ever registering with the justice department as a foreign agent, something that's required by federal law. eric? eric: thanks so much. arthel? arthel: for more on the manafort plea deal and what it means to the russia investigation going forward, let's bring in david hawking, congressional expert and former senior editor at roll call. let's ask you first of all, can you add more to this story for us? what can you add in terms of what did manafort proffer? do we know and who might get stung by the information manafort is providing mueller? >> no, we don't know any of that yet. mueller's investigation has been really remarkably good at holding its cards to the vest until they are ready to put them

out, but the words you use there are important and i think viewers need to be reminded of this. you used the word proffer. this is something those of us who covered courthouses know. when you reach a plea deal, that's really the end of the negotiating, not the beginning of the negotiating. in other words, reaching the plea deal between the government, between mr. mueller's prosecutors and mr. manafort and his defense lawyers, means that mueller now knows what manafort is going to say, what manafort is prepared to say. so there's no -- it's not as though they are taking any kind of gamble here, which i have seen some of that on social media, that this is like a big gamble. there's no gamble here. mr. mueller and his team know what manafort is prepared to say and they think it's a big enough deal, a worthwhile enough amount of information and testimony, that they are willing to cut the deal. arthel: yeah. yeah. i will get more into the specifics of the agreement in a second. if you will button your jacket for me, please. i want to hear what you're saying. there's rumbling there.

meanwhile, let me ask you this question while you do that. i want you to talk about manafort's long-time business partner, roger stone. as you know, he briefly was involved in the trump campaign. he served as an informal adviser to mr. trump himself. mr. stone claimed to have a back channel to wikileaks and was able to forecast when the 20,000 plus dnc e-mails stolen by russian hackers posted by wikileaks were going to drop. is manafort talking? should roger stone be worried? >> yes, i think that's probably true. i think most anybody that manafort dealt with that had anything to do with either the trump campaign or the efforts to help ukraine and the pro-russian influences in ukraine deal with the united states government, deal with the trump campaign, they should all be worried because as you said at the top,

when your reporter said manafort's promise here is complete. i think the words are truthful, forthcoming, forthright, comprehensive. in other words, he's got to give it all over here, and he's got to do it at grand juries and in trials and essentially any other times he's asked. arthel: let me pop up the terms of the cooperation agreement. we are talking about interviews, briefing with special counsel, turning over documents, testifying in other proceedings. so does the manafort plea agreement provide any further details about alleged collusion between the trump campaign and russia? >> it does not at this point. does not lay out what -- we do not yet know what manafort is going to say. we just know that he's promising to be truthful and complete, and we should also note here that the plea deal is essentially contingent on him following through on his end of the bargain. in other words, the sentencing, mr. manafort's sentencing will come later so he's got to keep up his end of the bargain or

else he's back in hot water again. arthel: as you already told us, mr. mueller knows the information so he's waiting to see if mr. manafort is going to provide that information as he knows it. >> that's right. trump tower meeting is important. manafort was essential to that. efforts to shift the republican platform at the convention, manafort was central to that. the famous dossier we have all heard so much about, manafort had a role in that. the whole notion of -- this whole notion of draining the swamp, mr. manafort was a central player in some of the swampiest lobbying behavior we have seen in d.c. in some time with foreign influences and washington. so manafort has lots to say about lots of different things, even if he doesn't actually end up pointing the finger at the president himself. arthel: david, what if anything does the manafort plea agreement tell us about the direction of the russia probe? >> i guess i think it means it's got to be getting towards the end.

i think that as we know, mr. manafort is probably the fourth or maybe fifth big-time trump campaign official who has now flipped, who has now turned state's evidence. you had bob gates, papadopolous, michael flynn, michael cohen, they have all flipped. manafort is bigger than any of them. it's hard to see what bigger state's witness they could get at this point. i've got to think the russian investigation is getting towards its end. there is still, of course, these discussions between mueller's team and the president's team about what, if anything, the president is going to say either in writing or in person, but it's hard for me to imagine another bigger witness at this point. i got to believe that the end is coming. i still don't think it's going to be before the election. i still think probably mr. mueller now will need to put manafort to work. i don't think we are going to hear anything before election day, that's sort of climactic from the mueller investigation.

arthel: mr. manafort has been promised protection so we will see what happens from here. david hawking, thank you very much. >> thanks, arthel. eric: two deadly storms roared across the same day with deadly tropical storm florence crawling across the carolinas, as it dumps torrents of rain. while that was happening, a massive typhoon brought devastation to the philippines. it had category 5 winds. a report on that disaster next. allergies with sinus congestion and pressure?

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eric: sadly the dead toll stands at 7 people as tropical storm florence continues to pound the carolinas, thousands more evacuating and about 1 million homes and businesses remain in the dark in the expected epic flooding, right now the eye of the florence as you can see heading for south carolina, half of the storm is taking up massive amounts of moisture from the ocean, this will continue

and we will have all of this and more straight ahead. arthel: another major weather story we are following today, a deadly typhoon slamming the philippines this weekend, at least 12 people killed and thousands forced to evacuate their homes. katie logan is following live from london bureau, kitty. >> hi, arthel, this was the strongest storm to hit the philippines so far this year, in addition to 12 dead there are several people missing. hit northeast philippines before dawn on saturday and high winds at 125 miles per hour combined with heavy rains caused absolute havoc, the water triggered several landslides killing two children and two rescue workers trying to free people trapped in those land slides also killed. now there was also significant damage to homes and buildings, power cables are down in many

places leaving people without electricity. now as you can see heavy flooding in provinces and 90,000 people in coastal areas to be evacuated. they have been advise today stay away from homes still now as more storm surges and more rain predicted and strong wind gusts that continue to blow debris from the storm around, now the typhoon has passed over the philippines and heading towards hong kong and china, the worst is over now for the philippines, arthel, but the problem is a big clean-up to come for many people. arthel: we will be right back. talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424.

arthel: fox news alert as tropical storm florence continues taking its toll on -- toll on north carolina, new mandatory evacuation orders issued for those living within 1 mile of the banks to have cape fear river amid flood waters expected to rise to record levels. hello, everyone, welcome to brand new hour inside america's news headquarters, i'm arthel neville. eric: thank you for joining us, i'm eric sean. this comes as deadly storm is now at a near standstill over the carolinas, nearly 1 million customers remain without power, at least 7 people so far have lost their lives. and sadly, the danger from this storm is far from over.