the storm surge is rushing in. in new bern, people wading through waist deep water trying to get to their hotels. and in wilmington, the rain coming down sideways in sheets. families who chose to stay and ride it out now bracing for the worst. >> we have large pine trees and they're really bending a lot and the wind just howling away as i can hear it from inside the house. >> reporter: reports of structural damage already racking up and shelters overflowing. and while we still do have power here in downtown wilmington a lot of folks already don't. we know at least 190,000 people in north carolina alone now in the dark and more than 100 waiting to be rescued in new bern, north carolina so the conditions really getting worse here as this storm just gets started. kendis and stephanie. >> emily, we can definitely see that wind there just kind of pushing you around. have you seen any emergency responders in the area, any

other type of activity where you are? >> reporter: i heard sirens probably about 20 minutes or so ago. but we did hear overnight that those first responders had for the first part pulled back because conditions were bad enough they couldn't risk it. they couldn't go out. it would be hard to walk, i think, really out here on the sidewalks if you didn't have some shelter really. i'm own blocked a little from the wind so that's what they're dealing with and seen a few people peek out from the businesses to see what the conditions are like but for the most part people are hunkered down and trying to wait this one out. >> all right, emily, thank you very much. stay safe out there. >> our thanks to emily rau. we have a breaking news development when it comes to hurricane florence right now, want to get to seem with the latest on what we're learning at 4:43. >> the hurricane center released new information on florence saying the headline here is florence about to make landfall. still 90 miles per hour, cat 1 and what's impressive about that

is as this storm has drifted closer and closer and closer to the shoreline it has maintained its strength and maintained its shape so it is still pumping all this wind and all that water up against the shoreline and all that rain as well and it will continue to do so for hours. we've got a slight drift to the west-northwest at six miles per hour so not good news for anyone. just wanted to update you on the latest information coming out. you can see how the center -- a little pause in the radar. you can see how that eye just really seems -- the storm is right around the center seems to reform really well. remember it's sitting over 82, 83-degree water temperature as it moves a little bit so west-northwest. let me just make sure i'm right. west-northwest would be putting it more between topsail and wilmington kind of in that zone right there. >> that, indeed. once again the breaking news update it does appear as if -- about to make landfall or

moments away from making landfall a result of the 5:00 a.m. hurricane update we're getting from the national hurricane center. i know you need to read in and see what the headlines are from that. what i'm seeing, it appears it is still a category 1 storm. winds of 90 miles an hour. the last update we had at 4:00 a.m., our meteorologist max and sam noted that they saw that the pressure was dropping a little bit, which may have indicated some form of it getting stronger. >> we would expect you see a little wobble in the strength and see a little wobble in the shape and movement in the eye, you know, a little bit here and there but what that does tell us, it wasn't weakening. we knew for sure. >> okay, so that indeed and that's the headline out of there. wilmington, north carolina, is -- has seen quite a bit of rain, rainfall of up to 2 inches per hour. it is being reported in some parts and a lot of flash floods, as well. >> and, sam, we heard from

victor oquendo there talking about how a lot of folks that he's spoken with compare it to past hurricanes. we know you don't like to compare -- >> that's all right. >> they're all different but the river flooding in this case, it could be worse than hurricane floyd and people were speaking with folks in town for that storm, everything was fine, but this could be much worse. >> well, we're already seeing in that new bern area in particular in that one area we've seen so much flooding in overnight if people had been with us all night we have been right on top of that as it was breaking. and we expect the crest of that to come tuesday, higher than the 1999 crest of floyd so that's for sure in that area. i wouldn't be surprised to see now that we still have that storm and the rain bands will move into other areas, we just may not have gotten the reports from those areas. i'm sure that other towns, it's not just new bern that is going through it right now. other areas are, new bern has been well staffed and been on

twitter and been sending out images so we know what's going on there. but there are a lot of people huddled in their homes under similar rain bands in similar conditions that just haven't been able to get the message out. >> new bern being a town of 30,000. we hope most of those folks evacuated. it is a dire situation there in new bern. again, the headline from the 5:00 a.m. update as we read through florence is located 25 miles east of wilmington. it's still just walking along there at six miles an hour. we'll let sam read in on this latest advisory but to washington, d.c. as you know president trump says fema is ready for florence. but he is facing some bipartisan criticism over what he just said about that other storm. >> as florence makes its way, the president is denying that hurricane maria claimed 3,000 lives in puerto rico. janai norman joins us with those details. >> reporter: stephanie and kendis, good morning, a long morning for you guys.

as the country is fixated on hurricane florence and those images from the coastline the president has continued to make headlines about last year's hurricane maria calling it a success and calling into question the number of lives lost. picture during a briefing and with fema ahead of hurricane florence, president trump says the government is completely ready. >> we're getting tremendous accolades from politicians and the people. >> reporter: but ahead of the storm of a lifetime the president has ignited a firestorm. making a shocking claim tweeting downplaying the americans who suffered from last year's hurricane maria in puerto rico. writing, 3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit puerto rico. falsely accusing democrats of inflating the death toll in order to make me look as bad as possible. >> if this were north carolina, i don't think he would be tweeting these heartless words.

i think he considers them stepchildren. >> reporter: nearly 3,000 people died by causes directly related to the hurricane and its aftermath. that number has been accepted by the government as the official death toll. 3,000 american citizens, most of them poor and elderly. but that didn't stop the president from giving himself a rave review for his administration's response. >> i actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done. puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> reporter: for the president to say that puerto rico was a success, a triumph of his presidency is simply delusional. >> reporter: the president fired off a series of tweets attacking democrats, "the wall street journal," calling into question the maria death toll, so many things that had nothing to do with the storm. white house officials say he is

focused on florence and will visit the areas affected as soon as he can. >> he doesn't have anything on his public schedule right now for the day. our janai norman in washington, d.c. our thanks to that. we do want to get to sam. he's been reading through some of the information and i can hear him over my ear just saying -- and also not good news. >> it's not good news. again, everybody just stay in place. i to a lot of people trying to sleep through the night are waking up and joining us now, so the latest information we have a cat 1 storm, 90-mile-per-hour storm in the center of the storm. it is -- the hurricane center is saying that the eye may -- part of it may wobble onto shore but a good part of the circulation will probably stay offshore. just like we've seen for the past few hours, and that could put us all in the same situation for many, many, many more hours with the storm barely moving, barely crawling, not really getting onshore so we can

disrupt the flow and basically if the center of the storm is still in the water, then it has everything it needs to still be spinning. when part of it moves on land, then that spin gets disrupted and that's when you start to see the weakening of the storm. they expect this to maybe bobble a little bit onshore. part of it may actually stay onshore. part of the circulation will stay offshore so that means not a lot of rapid weakening but rain bands will stay moving, the water on the coastline will stay forced to the coastline. the winds we've seen and we've seen a lot of uptick in the winds as the storm has gotten closer. anywhere you see the area in red it's likely you will see 100-mile-per-hour wind gust that's possible there. cherry point, where the old marine corps base was, about 72 miles per hour there. fort macon, 105 there. 80-mile-per-hour winds in emerald isle. cape lookout sticks out so far it has been getting a lot of

wind, not so much rain right now but a lot of the wind at about 97 miles per hour. wilmington, that number is 71 but we've seen a 76-mile-per-hour wind gust there. >> this could cause -- this new development could cause life-threatening storm surge. >> absolutely. >> along the coast. >> well, as long as that eye is offshore you still have every bit of that push of water onshore. and what happens is that c constant wind keeps that water up in those rivers up in those bays. so it doesn't get a chance to drain out and meanwhile it's raining adding more water. if we're getting two inches of rain an hour adding much more inland that also can't drain out so, yes, every impact is enhanced. more rain in the areas that had wind and we've got more of ma or we're not relaxing that water is being held into the bays at all. so hang tight. stay where you are.

this storm is still going to be whipping up exactly the same thing it's been serving for the past few hours for the next few hours. >> based on that information, based on a lot of the images we've seen in the overheight ho -- overnight hours you get a sense that a lot of us are in a life or death struggle especially in new bern. kitty, hawk, north carolina where gio benitez is there feeling strong winds. gio. >> reporter: we are still feeling some of those strong winds, want to step out of the camera. let's see if we could zoom in so you could see what's happening here. because that is what we were still experiencing here, all those very vicious waves almost and we've been looking at that for hours upon hours for the past 24 hours, in fact. let's take a look because i think we have some video of what we were experiencing just hours s gh a you canre reporting for e osee jus ttier and

the outer banks and that's what they're concerned about because they're concerned about looking at those waves and saying, wait a minute, is this going to cause a very dangerous storm surge here on this island? if you're not familiar with the outer banks, it is a very thin stretch of land and it floods very, very easily and so that is still a concern right now because even though it appears we are out of the rain portion we're still getting some outer bands right now, we are not out of the wind portion because as you know, as sam has been showing you, the size of the storm, it's a big storm so we are still getting those wind gusts right now and that's been the story here for the past 24 hours. >> so it has been relentless no doubt where he is in kitty hawk, north carolina, which is well north of the center of the storm. >> absolutely and gio, what has been the activity in terms of emergency responders and people? have you seen anyone around where you are?

walking around. >> no, and it's mostly a ghost town and that's what officials were saying. we want to you get out of here because if youency going to be able to get them to you during the storm so, in fact, yesterday almost now, almost 24 hours ago they actually shut down the bridges, there's only two bridges this and out of the outer banks. they shut down the portion of those bridges that comes into the outer banks because once people left, they did not want people to come back in. they said it's just too much of a risk and they don't want to risk that emergency service not being able to get to someone who needs help. i was talking yesterday to a guy who came in from chesapeake and i said, what are you doing here? why did you come? he said i have a 91-year-old mother and my mother is not able to evacuate and so i want to be with her because i know that emergency services just won't be available. so people, so good sons like that coming in to help their elderly parents. >> yeah, there are a lot of

people still in need at this hour. gio benitez there in kitty hawk, north carolina, there is a person that tweeted at sam and stephanie and myself saying that they were trapped in their car and still needing help and we were told that as of about 4:38 they might still very well be trapped in their car. i hope they're all right. >> one of the things we've done, sent that information to our news desk. we tweeted out to the city of new bern so, again, some of these things, we're news, we -- twitter is one thing where you have to be suspicious but in a situation like this and someone is reaching out for help you cannot deny them help so you have to pass that on to people who might be able to help them so that's exactly what we did in this situation and i hope everything turns out okay. >> we had the horrible aha moment and gut-wrenching moment, i think it was about an hour ago when the public information officer from the town of new bern was here and was on the phone and said that it is a dire situation. it is a disaster and then also

mentioned that there were people who were trapphe cs on top of roofs. it's a really bad situation there. >> at least 150 people she mentioned and those responders out there trying to get to them. one by one, including the folks that tweeted at us. and that person who sent us that tweet also said they have a very low phone battery right now. you are looking at some video of new bern right now. you can see that water rushing through. that is the area that has been hit the hardest so far and at this moment we know florence is about to make landfall. >> it's hugs the course but far inland is the town of greenville, north carolina and the reporter ed crum from raleigh-durham is there. >> reporter: we're here in greenville, north carolina, on the tar river, about 100 miles from the coast. despite being that far away

we've got a storm surge here that police estimate has come up about two feet or so since the afternoon and on top of that we're now getting heavy, steady bands of really driving rain and heavy winds, have thereby trees that have gone down and the river keeps coming up so there is a double or triple whammy here, not only is the river got storm surge from a storm sitting on the coast and not moving and continuing to push water up here, but also the rain on top of it and all the rain upstream. this is 200 miles long and there's another 100 and some miles upstream where there's tons of rain coming down from the storm and over the next few days here in greenville, people are very concerned about major flooding during hurricane matthew two years ago next month, they had that kind of major flooding and they're worried about it happening again this time. so everyone is trying to batten down the hatches here in greenville and hope this storm

moves on quicker than anticipated at least right now. we're in greenville, north carolina, in pitt.co county. i'm ed crump. >> much of that circulation will stay over water near the coast, of course, making for some life-threatening storm surge there in that area. >> that, indeed so there are a lot of places impacted and feeling a big impact on from florence. this is new video that i haven't seen so far this morning and it's actually a live picture i'm told and you can see the storm is still whipping up the conditions there. this is in wilmington, north carolina which is just there on the eyewall. there were some wind gusts that are well, well near tropical storm force there in wilmington, north carolina and they're going to be in the thick of it for quite a white. >> cat 1 winds. we're up 71 to 76 miles per hour in there. so we definitely have some good strong wind.

>> our nonstop coverage of hurricane florence and its impact continues right now. >> we're going to take a break to bring in more of our abc stations. >> announcer: 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 realit 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. >> caldwell banker which has water up just about to their first step. that's the bank over there. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: a day's long onslaught just getting under way as this slow churning monster storm stalls. >> the lethal conditions unfolding right now on this abc news special report. good morning from abc news in new york, i'm stephanie ramos with kendis gibson here. our nonstop coverage of hurricane florence continues right now. >> and you're looking at a live picture coming from wilmington, north carolina, which is in the heart of this storm right now. you can see the wind is whipping up some of those trees and the rain is really coming down. wilmington will get a lot of rain by the time this is over. it is also getting a lot of wind, some wind gusts that we've seen within the last hour or so around 71 miles an hour. the latest update from the

national hurricane center came in at 5:00 a.m. saying it is still a 90-mile-per-hour storm, category 1 hugging the coast and sam champion reacting saying this is not good when he said it seems as if the storm will go back and forth without making a landfall there. >> florence right now located 25 miles east of wilmington, north carolina moving west-northwest at six miles per hour. very intense, we've seen a lot of that storm surge hit areas especially new bern. we're hearing that a lot of people at least 150 people are reported to be trapped in their homes, in cars and some of them on top of their roofs. we've spoken with the public information officer for the city who says that emergency responders are trying to get to those folks, trying to get to them and help them. >> new bern right there on the top right of the map. it's been hit hard for i'd say about 12 hours now.

we saw flooding there in new bern 12 hours ago. and so they are in a dire situation, let's hear right now from the public information officer of craven county which is where new bern is located. we'll get to that i n a second. it's a small town relatively small of 30,000 people and heard of many rescues and that are taking place right now. but in some situations, it's really difficult to get there. so here's that -- here's amber from craven county. >> storm surge in new bern and other areas of craven county, we've had swift water rescues that started yesterday and rescues them from adams creek and township seven and there are

some areas now where it's not safe for us to reach. >> yeah, and we saw that there at least 150 people that the city of new bern put out that are still in desperate need of rescuing. do you imagine that that number has grown? are there a lot of people in need of rescuing right now? >> there are calls still coming in. i don't have an exact number but know we have near 100 calls for assistance. >> and talk a little about the resources that you may have. we understand there are two out of state fema teams that are there to assist you. what other resources do you have to help those folks that are in need right now. >> we have the national guard and we actually have the swift water rescue teams here to assist us. we have those out there. we also have two additional that are dispatched and are on their way here and have to wait until weather conditions let them make it here safely. >> how desperate is the situation there in new bern?

>> i would say certain areas of fubinaca are very desperate. there are people that can be trapped in water and vehicles on roofs, that is the situation for anyone -- >> say that again. there are people trapped on roofs? >> people that are trapped on roofs and in vehicles and -- >> and in vehicles. >> yes. >> that is horrible. have you guys been able to get to those people or what's the situation? >> i don't have the follow-up information on all of the calls. there are some that i know we have made it to and others where they've been rescued by other agencies or individuals or private citizens who rescued some people. >> do you anticipate these are people who just were trying to get out last minute, people who were just trapped in their houses and decided to go to the rooftops? >> yes. some of them we've been instruct the to get to the highest ground and get to their rooftook place if they can. >> how did they communicate with you and with your officer? are they calling 911? how are they getting their

message across that they need help? >> some are calling 911. we also have our citizens bank phone line at the emergency operations center where a lot of calls coming in. some are coming through social media and some even through other municipalities and agencies. >> what's the power situation like in craven county? >> there's widespread power outages. i don't have specific areas but i do know there are lot of the areas without power for a number of hours. >> once again we're talking with amber parker, the director and public information officer of craven county there and this is a hard hit area and, amber, looking at some images we have seen that have been truly troubling including at least one house fire there, those are among the calls that you're getting. >> reporter: i have seen a call regarding a structure fire. >> i imagine that's a really tough thing to be fighting in these early morning hours.

we saw the forecast. thought it would be a category 5 that describes the wind for this storm. did it end up being worse than you all thought it would be? >> i think none of us really knew how slow moving the storm would be initially. the storm has really -- this hurricane has just come on top of our area and so we're not only getting the rain and the wind but also the storm surge and the longer this turns over craven county the worse effects will be. >> amber, how did the city prepare for this storm? talk a little bit about that. >> insuresure, the storm was oue far off the coast even started to make preparations, of course, we stay prepared for weather events all year long but any time you have a storm as big as hurricane florence coming right to your coast certainly there are additional preparations needed. we have to get shelters in place and volunteer workers in place.

supplies are needed. we have to completely get our emergency operation center up and ready to go. we started with a volunteer evacuation tuesday morning which then turned into a mandatory evacuation countywide by 2:00 p.m. tuesday. >> and, amber, you know, a lot of people in that area talk about hurricane matthew that passed through. i had forgotten about matthew but i guess it really did have an impact but older generation talk about hazel which killed i believe some 95 people in the north carolina area decades ago. where in the early stages does this stack up compared to recent storms as far as just sheer damage and destruction right now? >> i was actually here for hurricane matthew, the public information officer for craven county and while that storm was devastating we saw lots of flooding, the impacts were the storm certainly happened a lot

faster than what we're seeing here. and a lot more service calls from what i've seen was not here for hazel. i have heard already we've exceeded water levels from hurricane irene. >> going back to those people that need rescued right now that are on top of their roofs, some are in their vehicles, how long do you think they'll need it wait it out before rescue teams can make it to them? is there an approximate time right now? >> it's really hard to say. the most important thing to look at is the safety and conditions and whether or not you can get a team in there safely but every call is being logged. everyone is trying really hard to get to everyone who needs help as fast as we can. we know people are scared. that they're in danger, that they're possibly cold. that they may have medical issues and so we really are, would go hard and have hundreds of rescue workers out there trying to help people. >> we know the city tweeted out that the message saying we are coming to get you.

so they want to make sure that people know that. >> yes. >> and, amber, you know, the mayor of new bern was mentioning a little earlier he tried to rescue a woman stuck in her attic. and he had to leave because the floodwaters were getting a little bit too high and she wasn't able to get down. do we have an update on whether that particular person, i know it's very specific but that particular person was able to escape. >> i am sorry. i don't have specific information on that call. >> that, indeed. you mentioned that there's a lot of destruction and damage. would you summarize the situation there as dire at this hour? >> i would say dire and in areas devastating. >> dire and devastating. but luckily at this point we do not have any reports of any injuries or anybody who may have passed away. >> no, i don't have any confirmed deaths or injuries at this time. >> that is the good news at least that we have right now.

>> still, of course, those people waiting to be rescued sitting on top of their roofs in their vehicles. we know crews are out there trying to get to them. >> all right. so that interview a little bit earlier from the public information officer for craven county, which is being hard hit. wilmington, well to its south is getting a lot of rain. this is a live picture right now as hurricane florence just still about 20 or 25 miles off the coast of wilmington is really starting to pound this area with the eyewall. sam champion has been following it all night long. as we look at that and look at it nearing the end talk to me quickly about how long this storm has been around. like we saw it several -- maybe more than a week ago coming off the coast of africa. >> yeah, and it takes a lot to get a storm to run from the coast of trick aafrica. and this has been a long lasting

storm. what that kind of means is that it's a well organized storm and it's picked up an awful lot of heat, a lot of energy, a lot of water on the trip. so it is no matter what category the winds are, this is a storm that's capable of dumping an immense amount of rain and has an awful lot of strength and power in it. witness the fact our 5:00 a.m. update and we've been -- good morning, by the way. if you've been with us all night long then we're all tired together. if you're brand-new to us then we've got new information to tell you about. and that is this storm maintained its strength all night long. category 1 storm, 90-mile-per-hour windstorm still drifting barely crawling to the west-northwest at about six miles per hour. now, that's bad news. even though you're saying, well, it didn't -- you know it didn't strengthen but it didn't weaken either and the new information on the storm it's expected even if part of it makes landfall, part of the