this is an abc news special report. hurricane florence. this is an abc news special report. >> i'm kendis gibson. we're bringing you the very latest on hurricane florence. unleashing on the carolinas at this moment. >> we're covering every angle of the storm with our correspondents posted at some of the most vulnerable spots along the coastline. sam champion is here tracking it all here in the studio. hurricane florence was downgraded to a category 1 storm overnight with winds dipping to 90 miles an hour. it's still a massive and dangerous system expected to trigger a record storm surge and

possibly catastrophic flooding. >> we are seeing images already of the flooding. that is just massive that storm surge. it's on track to make landfall this morning along the carolina coast. it really is having a huge impact already on cities that we're learning about, including bell haven, newburn, many cities. torrential rain upwards of possibly 40 inches over the next 24 to 48 hours. more than 150 people we're told are waiting to be rescued in the town of newburn. some on rooftops of their cars and on their homes. 180,000 homes have lost power in that state alone. officials say it could be weeks before it's totally restored. we've got a lot of work to do right here and now.

emily, you're there with many month have not evacuated, what's it like there? >> reporter: in wilmington, sheets of rain and driving wind really pounding the area as hurricane florence inches enward already breaching dunes and flooding streets. florence moving 10 miles per hour, but the water's moving past. >> it will be virtually impossible for the rescuers to get in to rescue you. >> reporter: tropical storm force-winds blasting an area hundreds of miles wide, ripping off this gas station candy in topsail beach, north carolina. as first responders pull back the storm surgical is rushing in. in newburn people trying to reach their hotels. in wilmington rain coming down

in sheets. families trying to ride it out bracing for the worst. >> the wind's howling away as i can hear from inside the house -- >> reporter: reports of structural damage already racking up and shelters overflowing. those high winds, intense winds knocking down power lines in a lot of different areas. at least 180,000 people are without power this morning. here in downtown wilmington, so far i've seen the power flicker but right now where we are power is still on. >> emily, i know you made to it that live location there went the last hour or so. did you get a sense of any sort of damage so far there in wilmington? >> reporter: reports of damage peopling up at this point.

you saw the video of the canopy of a gas station being torn off in north carolina. behind me there are parts of the building, the awnings are being ripped off slowly. if anything is not tied down and secured with a cement block or a lot of sandbags, it is not staying put. >> emily, we can see the wind picking up there where you are. we saw a car drive by. are you seeing a lot of activity there in your area? >> reporter: i was surprised to see a few people peeking out of the businesses behind me, actually. but other than that, pretty much quiet at this point. you can feel or probably see those big gusts of wind that sort of push you. i have something to hold on to, but it's at that point if you're out in this, it is very dangerous. and again, you have to be concerned. officials reminding people that the storm surge is the most deadly factor when it comes to hurricanes. if you are out driving like that vehicle, you really have to be careful. >> just to the east of where

emily is located there in wilmington is wrightsville beach, north carolina, where folks like to go on vacation. these are some of the scenes we're getting from rightsville beach within the last few moments. as you can see there are some powerful flashes -- this is part of the problem, you can see what's going on. crews are out there in the middle of this storm. >> you can hear the wind. >> yeah, so at least 180,000 people are without power, and that's just in north carolina alone. a lot of people that we've spoken with, some storm chasers have mentioned that they keep seeing these power flashes with these equipment failures. you can understand why so many people are without power right now. >> a lot of crews are there as well. they've had a couple of days for this, we've been waiting for this storm to hit these areas for a couple of days. we are seeing a lot of power

outages. crews, despite the rain and the intense winds that rightsville beach is seeing, crews are trying to restore power on the job. >> wrightsville can be windy on an average day, just imagine when you have a category 1 hurricane moving ashore. let's check in with sam champion. it's not as much the wind as the flooding that we'll be talking about today and going forward. >> i'll just follow up on the wrightsville on the coast getting all that wind you saw. we just can confirm now that fayetteville, which is about 100 miles inland, is getting tropical storm-force winds. the wind field really has spread well into the state at this point. let's talk a little bit about the flooding. because this is that newburn river area. we wanted to talk about how long this flooding will last. not only that, but when the peak and the crest of the flooding, when we might expect it. this is a forecast graphic. and it talks about, thankfully they widened it out so i don't

have to guess the wednesdays, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, monday into tuesday. this record of 22 feet was basically set during floyd in 1999. so we're already or we're expecting to be way above that with the flooding at 24.5. that's on tuesday. that's the crest of the flooding. so we're going to have all the flooding that we've got going on staying in place, getting more water on the drainage as we start to get in here toward monday. and then on tuesday we're expecting that flooding to peak. this graphic could change because that's a forecast. depending on how long the storm actually stays in place, because this storm really has been doing its own thing. and when it gets out and how much rain is there, we might have to adjust that. but that's the general idea of how long that flooding and when the peak of the flooding will actually get into that area. so following those spiraling bands again, because this is what we're doing as you're watching this storm inch its way

toward the coastline. trying to find that northern and eastern eye wall is very difficult here. and some would say that it's kind of gotten near the wilmington area where that toughest winds are starting to get into that zone. but then watch the latest radar, boom, right there. so you start to see the storms form another circle in here. so we still have some good rotation, and that would indicate that the actual center of this storm hasn't actually gotten on the shoreline yet. hasn't made landfall yet. it's still sitting offshore. so the storms are still firing up and rotating in. one of the things we've been watching for is they've been going over the same towns over and over and over again for hours now. and they'll continue to do that until either the storm weakens and gives out, or it starts to move and drift a little bit. so here you go. you've got the cape fear river, newburn river. thank you for putting this on, max. so in newburn you've got the two

rivers that meet in this area. you've got all of that water. then look at the openings here all along the outer banks. the water's been forced in here by those winds constantly. this has been since we had daylight and certainly evening hours, this kind of push of the wind has been going on through there. what we'll look to see in other communities, some communities south of this haven't seen that kind of flooding that they've seen in newburn yet, that kind of push of water. but they will. because as that storm starts to drift a little bit to the south, the wind direction will change for them. so right now where the position of the center of the storm is, the wind direction has been pushing right in here. but it's been running parallel to the coastline right here. so when the center of the storm drifts to the south that wind field will hit these areas and we'll see the same thing, water being forced up into the river, the rain not being able to drain out, and communities flooding. so we're not done with this storm yet by any wild stretch of the imagination.

here's the kind of water up against the coast that we expect. 7 to 11 feet. that means additional. so if it comes in the high tide cycle, and i think we've got another one from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 in the afternoon. because we just had one in the nighttime hours at about the same time. this will still be sitting there. we'll have another high tide cycle of that 7 to 11 feet of water in that area. so that's where we're standing with this. the flash flood warnings, the flash flood watches going on, tornado watches going on. we had two tornado warnings in north carolina. the same type of thing we'll be seeing for hours and hours and hours now. >> yeah, it is definitely going to be potentially a hurricane for much of today. sam, let's check in on the situation overall for the state. joining us on the phone is pamela walker, communications director with north carolina department of public safety. pamela, i know you've been monitoring the situation from the command center there in raleigh.

what's the latest? >> well, we're hearing of a lot of flooding in the clayvon county area, especially new bern. the city of new bern tweeted out they had 150 people that needed rescue. the department or the state emergency operations center, the state emergency response team, has partners and rescue teams in the area. they have approximately 100 personnel that are in that area, and they have more teams on the way. those are swift water rescue teams, search and rescue teams, that are able to rescue people when we have calls of need. >> your department carries out machine response for the entire state, and of course new bern there is seeing a lot of the flooding. people needing rescue. are there any other cities, any other parts of north carolina

that you're having to respond quickly to that are also seeing -- also in a similar situation to new bern? >> well, across most of the coastal part of north carolina as well as some of the inland counties, as far as -- as far inland as some counties that are close to raleigh, such as nash county where the town of nashville is located, halifax county, the northeastern part of the state but more inland off of the coast. so we're seeing tornado warnings, we're seeing flood warnings, flood watches and that type of thing. we do have a lot of rivers and sounds in those areas. and so right now it's -- the east part of north carolina is getting pounded. >> the hardest-hit area you believe is the county of craven county right now? >> craven, yeah. craven county, which is the town of new bern. a lot of people are familiar

with the historic town of new bern. >> we have heard those reports of the rescues that are taking place there in new bern, the attempted rescues. do you kind of get a sense that people in that town and elsewhere, not trying to knock on them at all, but that they didn't necessarily prepare properly for this? we're getting so many reports of people who are out on rooftops and in their cars. >> honestly, this storm, we saw a lot of people that did heed warnings of evacuations earlier this evening. we had approximately 12,000 people that were in shelters. so we do feel like a lot of people did heed warnings. some people may have not had a choice, may have had obligations in their area or some people just don't want to leave their homes, they feel safer in their homes. and so some people just chose to wait it out. >> we were told there was 10 feet of floodwater that went through the town of new bern. speaking of that, right now,

pamela, it looks like just under 200,000 people in the state of north carolina are without power? >> that's right. it's approximately -- it's been fluctuating between 180,000, 185,000 of those without power. those are mostly in the county of carterette, atlantic beach area, morehead city. another hot spot for power outages is onslow jack, some people may know that as jacksonville or camp lunar. >> we've received messages from people watching our coverage and are relaying the information to people who are in these areas that are without power. what would you say to individuals that are without power that are there that are trapped, waiting to be rescued, or just riding out the storm? what would you say to them? >> well, i'd say to them that if you have an emergency situation

that you would want to call 911. we're working on trying to set up something right now where people can send information in about their locations. and there's also the crowd source rescue site where people can post information about their locations and people are monitoring that too. >> we do have a brief interview with a resident of new bern who says her parents have their homes flooded. christiane blackwell says they're okay but looking for a place to ride out the storm. pamela, i want to get your reaction on the other end. >> well, they were in trent woods. and they were not rescued. their neighbors were rescued but they were able to leave by vehicle when their house started flooding. and they are still in their vehicle in a grocery store parking lot. they've tried to get out of the wind as best they could, but they can't tell where to go

right now because they don't know what roads are open. i think right now they just got out of the house not long ago, now they feel a little safer where they are at the moment. until they can at least see where they're going. but they are going to try to get to a shelter, it's just a matter of they had to get out of the wind. they are a little bit closer to the river than i am. but as long as i've known them living there, which is probably close to 20 years, i don't think that they've had anything like this at all. i have talked to them and the last i talked to them was right before i got on the phone with you and i gave them the number for the emergency services. so i think they were going to call them to see the closest place they could get to. i'm about eight miles away from union point park which is where you're seeing all the major flooding and everything downtown. so i can't say that i've seen any of it in person, but i definitely have a lot of friends that have had to leave from that area. we're very fortunate we're out of the storm surge area. we're definitely getting the wind and the rain.

>> so that's a tough situation, pamela. i don't know if you heard that interview just there with that young lady talking about her parents who got in their car to escape the floodwaters, trying to make it to one of the 120 shelters that are open right now in north carolina. what is somebody to do if the floodwater is starting to rise right now? do they try to get to the rooftop of their house? or i guess get in their car and go to a parking lot? what do they do? >> it of course depends on what's in your area what it's like in your area. that's got to be so scary for them. my heart goes out to them. we do have a lot of teams that are trained, highly trained and experien experienced, very dedicated members that are out there now. as soon as conditions are such that they can get out to those people, i know that they will do that as soon as possible. i encourage people that are

considering getting out on the roadways -- i wouldn't do that. i would just hunker down. i know it's scary. i would be very hesitant to tell anyone to get out on the roadways. if you do feel like you have to get out there and you see water across the roadway, turn around, don't drown. we've seen it in north carolina, hurricane matthew, that was where we had the highest number of deaths. the majority of deaths were people in their cars and drowned. >> and we spoke earlier with the public information officer for the city of new bern. she mentioned that there had been water rescues yesterday. so as early as yesterday. talk a little bit about the resources that the state has right now to come to the rescue of those folks that need help. >> we're very fortunate here in north carolina that we do have a lot of our own swift water rescue teams, search and rescue

teams, helo aquatic teams. of course those teams, helo teams, cannot get out right now in conditions like this with the high winds and that type of thing. but we are very important that we have a lot of trained personnel that are from across the state. in addition to that we also -- we have teamed up with fema, who have teams that have come from across the country. we have teams that are from nebraska, teams from arizona, louisiana, massachusetts, new york. >> even from canada as well. >> yes, exactly. we do have teams from all over the country. and our neighbors and inn canada. >> you're well inland in raleigh, north carolina, right now. what are the conditions like there? >> well, i am actually -- i am in raleigh, which is where our state emergency operations center is located. we are getting a little wind and

rain now. it was pretty quiet a little bit earlier where we just had wind. but it sounds like we're getting some rain on the windows here now. >> and it is expected to be a rain event for much of raleigh and the durham area. but they are expected to get some tropical storm-force winds. i do want to look at the 4:00 a.m. update that just passed through while sam champion is here with us. >> still 90-mile-per-hour storm, still a cat 1, still crawling at 6 miles per hour. the eye wall, though, according to national hurricane center, is actually very close to wilmington. and a buoy just off the coast of wilmington has reported a 90-mile-per-hour wind. we do want to tell people in wilmington, including our crews there, that the winds are just about to really kick up there. make sure you're holding on, make sure you're inside. it seems like the worst part of those winds are getting very

close. during the next few hours we will actually now be forecasting when that eye wall comes onshore, it appears. >> there's even a tornado watch in effect for that area, for the coastal area. >> a watch. warnings are already that we issued already, are out, but we have a watch for that area. >> do we have reports of tornados on the ground? or it's a little early? >> at this point we have people looking to see beneath those warnings if there was report of a touchdown. these were radar indicated. so we're kind of in the process of looking. again, it's early in the morning. it's dark under the cover of night. it's difficult to find out now until we get -- there's the tornado watch that you were talking about, stephanie, for jacksonville, new bern, hatteras, kill devil hills, beaufort in north carolina involved. >> that's on the dirty side of the storm? >> right on the north side of the storm. it's been where we've seen the heaviest bands of rain move through. some of the worst winds and some

of the worst flooding. because it's that direct push of that water from offshore, onshore, and just shoving it right down those rivers well inland. >> and that 4:00 a.m. update is sort of like -- just to give you our bearings on where the storm is. we expect a better update at the top of the hour at 5:00 a.m., that is. what's the difference with that? they give us more details? >> yeah, they'll give us a little bit more. they'll usually give you a kind of summary of what's going on with the storm. but they just don't have the time to completely run all the information every hour. so it takes them a couple of hours to process all the information. i'm looking through there now just to see that 4:00 a.m. repositioning, if there's anything else we need to know. i think the most important thing coming out of it is that that eye wall is very close to the coast. 30, if you measure the actual eye wall, it's about 30 miles east of wilmington right now.

and that buoy report of that 90-mile-per-hour wind. >> we're entering hour number three next. >> this is an abc news special report. hurricane florence. >> breaking news right now. the full force of florence thrashing the carolinas. >> this is a powerful storm that can kill. today the threat becomes a reality. >> the storm of a lifetime. 500 miles wide. crashing ashore with 100-mile-per-hour winds. >> just take a look, these waves are crashing right up over this dock! >> the catastrophic storm surge already flooding homes and entire towns. >> we have caldwell banker which has water up just about to their first step. that's the bank over there. >> the power outages growing by the hour. buildings torn apart.

a television station forced to evacuate their meteorologists. >> the situation that has developed here at the station, and that is that the water getting close to the building -- >> a days-long onslaught just getting under way as the slow-churning monster storm stalls. >> the lethal conditions unfolding right now, and the hurricane's latest path on this abc news special report. >> good morning from abc news headquarters in new york. i'm kendis gibson with stuffny ramos. nonstop coverage of hurricane florence continues right now. >> new video this morning from new bern, north carolina, which has been hit the hardest overnight with more than 10 feet of floodwater reported. there are reports that at least 150 people need to be rescued, with records of some of them on top of their homes or trapped in cars. you can see from that video there that the storm surge, you

can hear the wind. >> as the storm moves ashore, the biggest concern right now is what you're looking at right now. the storm surge expected to be 11 feet across north carolina. nearly 200,000 power outages. we just got an update from the national weather service. we'll check in with sam champion in a moment because there was something interesting that happened with that storm that is very ominous that we just learned. >> we've been speaking with correspondents and emergency responders this morning. they're with us, they continue to be with us this morning to bring us the very latest on this story. and we begin our coverage this half hour with abc's victor oquendo, who is in jacksonville, north carolina, where victor, the winds are picking up? >> reporter: the winds are picking up and they've been relentless all night long, stephanie. i'm kind of protected by this wall. if i take a few steps out, you'll be able to tell, even

stronger out here and the rains have not stopped all night. our hotel lost power early on. storm surge continues to be the main concern here in jacksonville. could be looking at somewhere in the ballpark of about 11 feet, which would just be devastating. inland flooding, of course, a major worry as well. we've checked in with the emergency management officials here. they say there are reports of major structural damage to buildings, to homes, to businesses. we've heard of a local high school that has been flooded. jacksonville, about 20 miles inlanded from coast, we were down there a few hours ago. and we saw hurricane florence making its approach. we were down there near the mouth of the new river which runs from the coast up here through the city of jacksonville. and that creates kind of a unique problem. they're expecting a one-two punch. first the hit from the initial storm. then the inland flooding. as i mentioned that storm surge could be somewhere around 11

feet. the winds and the rain have just been relentless. i heard sam a few minutes ago say the eye wall is quickly approaching the area now. so we're definitely starting to feel that here in jacksonville. >> these are scenes, victor, reminiscent of watching puerto rico during maria. you've been through some pretty powerful storms. i'm not sure you can hear me. how's it feeling, how's it sounding right now? >> i gotcha. hurricane maria obviously nearly a category 5 storm, very powerful as well. i think right now these are some of the strongest winds that we have felt since we've been out here overnight. winds are significantly picking up out here. the rain has just been nonstop. you could just hear it pounding against the walls and the windows inside the hotel all night. this is about, again, as strong as we've felt it all night long. now with that eye wall

approaching, i guess this is what we have to look forward to for the foreseeable future. >> we're looking at images there from jacksonville. some structural damage that has taken place there. a school flooded, equipment damage. have you seen any structural damage there where you are? >> reporter: driving around town last night, we actually saw a few transformers just blowing left and right. you'd start to see sparks fly in the air. some gas stations as well, parts of it just ripped right off. nothing quite like what they're seeing over in new bern. just about 20, 30 miles away from here. but there are reports, again, of structural damage to homes and businesses here in onslow county where jacksonville is located. >> we'll check back in with you all down there. stay safe there, victor, appreciate the coverage. jacksonville does look like it's being hit really, really hard. so the 4:00 a.m. update came from the national weather service.

obviously just about -- just before the top of the hour. and there was something that sam champion noted that's especially ominous. even at this point in the storm. >> just while we stay on that picture of victor's live shot, take a look at that. because that's a 76-mile-per-hour wind just reported in that jacksonville area. take a look at those winds. now that is strong hurricane-force winds right there whipping through there. so more head city, the other thing i want to tell you, there's a 5.5-foot surge in more head city. new bern we know was a 10-foot surge. then, yes, sir, the 4:00 a.m. what we call a repositioning, the hurricane center says, okay, here's where the storm is, here's what the wind field is, here's where it's moving again. we have a 90-mile-per-hour max sustained win, still a cat 1 storm, moving west-northwest at 6 miles per hour, which is a slow crawl. not good news, it means it's still sitting there and those people are underneath it who

have been underneath it now for hours and hours. here's what kendis is talking about that i mentioned to the meteorologist who's working -- we've got three of them on right now. of them we were talking to, 955 which is down a little bit so when you see the pressure drop and, max, thank you for putting the radar up and stay on it. when you see the pressure drop, that is usually the storm strengthening a little bit. so when you see the pressure drop a lot, you change categories, you know, and if it doesn't change categories it means the wind fld i spreading out but we've seen this before. what i didn't like about it was the eye looked very open for awhile. and then there's the open part. now look at that. look how it looks like you're getting a whole new eye right there. this storm is within 30 miles of the coast. see, when you get half of a storm inland like this and the other half in the