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 circulation will stay out in the water for

possibly hours and hours and may be a good part of this day. that's really bad news for people because it means everything we've seen for the past few hour, the rough winds, rough rain, the storm surge, all of that continues for just about the same areas that have gone through it. i'll show you some of the highlights of the good news but what is going on with this thing right now. so in the last few hours we saw this really open field here where the eye should be of the storm. it was really kind of hard to find the eye, the center of the storm and you kind of got the idea this storm was getting ragged, kind of coming apart and then, no, in one update in a d midupdate between 3:00 and 4:00 the pressure dropped a little and saw the storms reform right around the center of the eye so we were able to see where the eye is. then these storms really did ramp up. now you see the worst of these storms, that eyewall kind of storm. surf city to topsail beach, basically getting into wilmington as well. and the same thing, those bands have been pushing all the way

into central north carolina all along those outer banks, now, the good news had been that new bern got a little break so let's watch the whole rotation, oh, max, i'm sorry, we can't go backwards. let's talk about the wind field. new bern is not out of it. the storms dropped out for awhile then came back full force. this is important to note because here's the hurricane strength of the wind from where we were to take a look at this. saturday at 7:00 a.m. so where we were, the hurricane force winds have been staying right in this area. that is bad news because for hours and hours and hours it's just like whipping, whipping everything. now, slowly it will drift but look where we are saturday 7:00 a.m. still we have these hurricane force winds at 74 plus miles per hour in myrtle beach, in south carolina. so this storm is kind of staying in place or drifting very slowly for a long period of time. here is the latest idea on it so

don't move too quickly, max. let me catch up this. is where we are and then this is friday at 2:00 p.m. that's barely a move. if you look -- if you try to find the border there of north carolina and south carolina right there. and we're still in wilmington, so looking at the center of this storm kind of hovering around the wilmington area. this would be great if the center of the storm got that far inland. but the hurricane center is a little concerned that this thing will get inland, not inland, get inland, not inland, may dance around a little bit so part of the eye and the eyewall will get onshore but not enough of it to substantially weaken the storm. check out the category. 1, 1, 1 and this is still talking about saturday at 2:00 a.m. so we're still talking -- then we drop down to a little bit of a tropical storm so we have almost a full day of this storm barely moving. like you could drive from wilmington into south carolina in less than an hour, no time at all even in traffic but this

storm is going to stay here for almost an entire day. so with that the one thing i will say if you widen this out, this is also -- you haven't had to deal with it yet but ohio, pennsylvania, good morning if you're waking up in new york state, vermont, new hampshire. this storm, florence, has rain for you and it's going to be tropical rain. monday at 2:00 a.m. sitting right in here in kind of kentucky/tennessee area moving into the ohio/pennsylvania border by 2:00 a.m. on tuesday, wednesday 2:00 a.m. this thing is in vermont, new hampshire. whatever is left of the circulation, that tropical moisture so a lot of rain. the bad news, i know we're talking about the coast but a heads-up because we have days of this thing moving around. we've had a lot of rain from gordon in ohio, pennsylvania, kentucky, we're going to get more rain. and there's going to be some flooding there. why is this storm not moving? every hurricane i remember watching, you know, just moves on shore and then zips around.

well, this thing is going to get blocked. this area of high pressure is building inland and the same thing that happened to its that made it steer directly toward the carolina coastline got trapped under an area of high pressure that will prevent it from going too far inland too quickly. hugging along the coast, doing the same things that it's done all night long, flooding and that's from storm surge, rain, those strong winds that have been creating that damage that we've been seeing and now that we're starting to get daylight we'll actually realize that more communities have been going under these same problems, at night it's hard to figure out what's going on with the storm like this but as we get daylight we'll get the images we'll share with you and these communities, more of them, not just new bern, but we'llable able to see that. this storm just doesn't want to move quickly. when it does get inland it does move but all day, kendis, we've got all day with this storm, all day today. i've been, you know, talking to

ginger on twitter. she's already awake and getting ready for "good morning america" and she's going to be under the storm all day. >> we have all day with it. it seems as if a good chunk of the country will have all week with it possibly. all right, our thanks to sam. well, we hope that the government is ready for this storm. matt allen the deputy in charge of the national response at fema is joining us now live and, matt, how prepared are you guys for this? >> i think we're very prepared. we've got a great staff here. we've got nearly 150 people overnight with -- and ramps up to about 300 people during the day from across the federal government and volunteer organizations prepared to coordinate the response effort. >> what have you guys done to prepare? >> so, we've staged commodities, food, water, cots, and other supplies. we've brought in and prepared the military and coast guard and

our swift water rescue teams from national urban search and rescue to make sure that we can respond quickly to, you know, life sustaining and saving operation. >> matt, we know fema teams have been brought in to the state from out of state, they're in new bern helping out with the situation there which the public information officer told us it's a situation that's dire and devastating. what is your team dealing with at this very moment? >> so, we've been coordinating with our national urban search and rescue and well as other operations to be able to get in there and do the life-saving operations. >> that, indeed. it's good to know you are there as we look at this video of new bern, north carolina, that said, at this early hour, where are you getting a sense is the most troublesome spot right now? >> so, we're generally concerned

with the storm surge and then the excessive rainfall. >> so the storm surge where? >> along the coast and, you know, the hurricane just kind of sitting offshore and continuing to push water inland. >> all right. thanks to matt joining us from fema who is the deputy in charge of the situation there. fema is saying that they have 150 people on the ground preparing to move in. you see some of the things that will be facing them over the next couple of days as you look at these transformers just exploding in the middle of the night there in the town of new bern, north carolina. jacksonville is an area getting hit hard as well. >> absolutely, the city's high school is heavily -- has been heavily damaged and saw video of that. water in the school. just dousing that school and

their equipment, of course, the school just got started just a little while ago and this is what they're already dealing with there in jacksonville, north carolina. you can see the debris there. >> abc's victor oquendo is in jacksonville. >> reporter: the winds here are only getting stronger and the rain has just been relentless. the last reported wind gust here in jacksonville, north carolina, 76 miles per hour. this rain, you can see it, we're feeling it for sure. it's just whipping, helping us, as we step out here, we're about 20 miles inland from the coast. you can imagine what they're dealing with as the eyewall is very close to them. the major concern here in the jacksonville area in onslow county is that storm surge. possibly around 11 feet. a lot of that seawater will get

pushed inland and that will lead to some flooding. emergency officials tell me that they are expecting an unprecedented amount of rain. we could be looking at possibly three feet of rain falling in this area. the same emergency officials we've spoken with said there's major structural damage to businesses and homes in the area and a quick drive around town we saw transformers blowing, we saw the canopies of gas stations ripped right off. reports of a local high school dealing with some major flood damage as well. right now the story though in jacksonville continues to be the strengthening winds and the rain. only picking up here. victor oquendo, abc news, jacksonville, north carolina. >> victor, thank you very much for that. we are getting reports right now of a hotel in jacksonville,

north carolina, that's been evacuated. they say the building has been compromised. >> right where victor is, nearby, about 70 occupants have been evacuated as hurricane-force winds threatened the structure and the integrity of the building. the good news i guess is that there are plenty of shelters available. the bad news is getting to those shelters will be a struggle for many people. you saw that live picture of the rain really coming down in wilmington. this is from jacksonville. some of the earlier images that we were getting. those are two areas that are getting hit hard right now by some of the strong winds and rain that's in the eyewall. >> about 70 people were evacuated from that hotel including children a, an infant pets. >> we have like -- we've heard of new bern. you can really see where the storm is moving, where the impact is. i think by some of the damage reports we're hearing and some of the rescues that we're

hearing, we were all about new bern earlier and still will be. but you are starting to learn more about jacksonville and this town being hit hard. it's basically roughly between new bern and wilmington, i guess, halfway. >> yeah, those are the northern bands, so, again, it's that northern part of the storm where you get a direct inflow onshore of all the wind and the rain, those areas have been sitting under it for hours so you're right, yeah, it's that new bern first, then drop a little south if it works a little south to the jacksonville area then we'll keepdoctoring ke ke keep dropping it and communities south of jacksonville in north carolina throughout the day. >> if there are people who might be waking up right now it is 5:20 in the morning. a lot of folks are just getting their day started and a lot might not realize what the situation is with the storm. it is still a category 1 storm,

90-mile-an-hour winds and stayed that way for the overnight hours and massive. i know we say that a lot about storms but it almost seems like the eyewall grew and the size of the storm grew. >> we're looking at a storm easily more than 400 miles across if you look at the top of the clouds. high sustained winds at 90 miles per hour. we have the one thing we did update lately is the rain field and we are actually -- there's more rain expected further west and south than we had been looking before. so if you can remember where we were with that locally 15 inches locally 40 inches of rain, we were a lot more to the coast. that has pushed almost toward charlotte. >> oh, okay. >> if you look. >> charlotte is the 10 to 15-inch range but look how close that area, that white area is. now look into -- keep going west and look in south carolina where we've got the orange and red. that is columbia, that is

charlotte, asheville, you're now in what will be four to six inches of rain in that orange area and in the red six to ten inches of rain, now that goes all the way up toward roanoke, as well. and raleigh, you're in that six to ten-inch rain. the one thing we will tell you if you're waking up as you get into the mid-atlantic and into northern new england, this storm has rain for you. tropical rain to the tune of 2 to 4 inches of rain easily working up into vermont and new hampshire by the time we get middle of the week so heads-up. i don't want anybody not paying attention thinking, oh, it's just a hurricane that is staying well to the south. no, this thing will move inland eventually and it will bring that rain and the wind up to the north. the problems that we're looking at will continue to be coastal north carolina today during the day, that is still going to be the worst hit areas. >> military bases included thin that area, fort jackson, ft. bragg and a lot of those soldiers, active duty soldiers

on the ready and the national guard will be called up first if needed. but everybody there in that area ready to respond. >> most of these communities and even the states have reciprocal agreements during disasters to get aid in so it's not like south carolina is sitting alone or north carolina is sitting alone. they have agreements with other state, kentucky, virginia, florida so they're all sending in people to help. now, the way the department of defense set this up is that all the military bases and ft. bragg is one of those places where equipment is stationed. helicopters, humvees, all of that is ready to move from that location. >> i just want to know while you're talking, this is a live picture of wilmington. look at that sign in that parking lot and the sheer amount of rain that is coming down. it's just really seems as if wilmington is in the heart. >> did not change in the last hour. much worse than it was an hour ago. >> our appreciation of the station that is panning around the camera there because you

really do get a sense of how the storm is moving, if it's not moving completely inland very fast, it is definitely moving into the wilmington area right now. wilmington, do we have rainfall amounts for wilmington as yet? i know it's expected -- that was in like -- wilmington is definitely in the area where it's more than 15 inches of rain, possibly 20 and in that area that says locally 40, which i know seems like a crazy jump from 15 to 40 inches, but here's the problem. remember, you know, you've seen those rain bands, if the rain band moves over one community for many hours, that community is going to get two, three times as much rain as a community that stayed out of the rain band for awhile. so it's not that we're just kind of throwing numbers at it. it really and truly is that the rain comes in in stripes, comes in in bands, if you're under it, you get it. >> one more note i did notice at the banner at the bottom the

number of people without power in the state of north carolina has grown just in the last two hours that we've been talking. it is now just under 300,000 people are without lights, doubled. doubled since we've been here talking about this and that number definitely will grow in the overnight hours. >> and, sam, you mentioned this is a long-lasting storm. it's obviously something we've been watching for the last couple of days, but now the storm is slowing down, of course, causing that life-threatening storm surge. >> and not weakening. so what we're looking at, the storms that are in surf city right now, topsail beach, this -- look at the shape of what you're looking at, the shape of the storm we will continue to see for a good part of this day. it's just not going to lose a lot of strength and the hurricane center has expected to maintain category 1 strength, almost throughout the day. >> a hurricane lasting that long. some towns getting hurricane-force winds for so many hours. this is going to be rough and our nonstop coverage of

hurricane florence as it hugs the carolina coast does continue. >> we'll take a break to bring in more of our abc stations. good morning, everybody. at ak 30 in the morning, eastern time from abc headquarters, i'm kendis gibson. our coverage of hurricane florence does continue. >> this storm is close to making land fall, pounding the north carolina coast and it's been doing that for hours. we have a live picture to show you of wilmington, north carolina, where that area has been getting pummeled with rain and just really intense wind there. >> yeah, they have been getting hurricane force gusts as well. these are some of the images we have gotten in the overnight hours. of course, it is expected there

will be a big storm surge. we have reports of people trapped in their cars and on top of roofs of their homes. that must be a really, really difficult situation for folks in the middle of the night. 150 people were waiting to be rescued in one city alone, that was several hours ago. that number has, no doubt, grown. >> we received a tweet from someone waiting to be rescued. >> we have pictures from bell haven where the water is very, very high. we have a picture from wilmington, which is getting battered. that whole area, that coastal area getting hit now. there's the video from bell haven, north carolina. you can see that water as high as those windows. >> when we first saw this video, a few hours ago, the storm was well off land. it kind of gave us a jolt. that's what we have all been talking about and meteorologists have been talking about, that storm surge.

this is a result of the storm surge coming from a river near bell haven. in the town, cameras were rolling. was this gas station collapsed. this storm chaser noting it. it narrowly missed that red car and then just dropped, seconds later. you can hear the wind whipping as well. in this new video, nearby there, residents saying there's no more beach left. nearly 200,000 people are without power. more than 200, nearly 300,000 people without power in north carolina. note there, as you see the flag, whipping up there in top sail. >> that area is getting beat upright now. we are going to check in with a deputy city manager in jacksonville. ron massey, where some 60 people have been -- >> 70 people, yeah.

>> -- have been rescued and evacuated because the structure was being compromised. >> caller: we received a call there was a problem at the local hotel and when we arrived, firefighters found that there was a hole in the corner of the building and we determined that the building was not going to be able to stand in the force of the winds. so, we started getting all the people out of the rooms and getting them in vehicles and transporting them to, you know, the first location we could, the center for public safety where our emergency center is operating. we were holding them here, out of the elements, until we can make arrangements to actually get them to a shelter.

>> were these residents who had gone to the hotel for shelter or possibly journalists, who were these people there at the hotel at this hour? ron, are you with us? ron, are you with us? i think we may have lost him. he was describing the scene that played out in the middle of the night as the storm was moving in, then having to move dozens of people from the heart of the middle of the storm because of this structural damage that was done to one of the hotels there. jacksonville, we noted, did get hurricane force winds. victor was there and being bounced around. you can see the images from there. >> thankfully, they noticed that hole in the building soon enough to get those people out of there. at least 70 people had to be

rescued, including children, pets and infants as well. so, hopefully we'll be able to speak with mr. ron massey here in a bit to get an update on the situation. >> they were able to get them to the location, which is there where their command center and hoping to get them to a shelter. you can imagine, as you look at the scenes, how harrowing it might have been for those people. jacksonville, as we mentioned and we have been watching it, it is getting powerful winds. to the north of there, well to the north, in north carolina where we have felt strong winds this morning. geo, you covered a lot of storms. tell us how this is shaping up, so far. >> you know what? when i look at the radar here, sam champion will share this concern, we are seeing that eyewall getting closer and closer. if you are watching from that area near wilmington, as the eyewall approaches, one of the

things when you are looking at an eyewall and you are in the eyewall, suddenly, it's silent. you hear orchestra of crickets and everything. everything seems very calm. if you are watching us in that area, please don't be deceived by that. the moment you step out into that silence, it can suddenly be hitting you with another eyewall with a second part of the eyewall and that becomes an incredibly dangerous situation. growing up in south florida, i saw so many people injured because they stepped out in the eyewall and thought it was fine. it's a clear sky. it is an entirely clear sky. it's quiet as can be and very deceiving. here, right now, in the outer banks, we are looking at the waves continuing to pound the coast here. we are getting these wind gusts that are coming through here. clearly, we are not getting that rain right now because those outer rain bands, that so-called dirty side of the storm that we

hear so much about, that northeastern quadrant of the storm, that rain is done for there. that doesn't mean the wind is over, the wind threat is very much alive. the storm surge threat is still very much a problem here because people are looking at this. they know how this area typically floods. this thin, stretch of land here in the outer bank. that's a concern to look out for. the storm surge and if you are in the wilmington area, watch out for the eye. it's deceiving. >> a good point to make, not to be deceived by the current condition where you are, where it isn't raining, it is dry. what type of -- are you seeing activity? are you seeing people poke their heads out, walking around, cars driving by? what are you seeing? >> reporter: the good news, i see one car, someone is out on the road right now. the good news is this particular area, i have to tell you, i haven't seen this in other

storms i have covered. days ago, people started evacuating. days ago, when the weather was still gorgeous, when it would have been a great beach day to get out there and hang out on the beach with your family, people left town. tourists didn't want to take any risks here, any chances. residents here did not want to take chances. they boarded up their home. we have a line of giant homes here. you can't see them because it's too dark. those people boarded up quickly and got out of here. a lot of people, because they are used to strong storms hitting here, a lot of people already have those aluminum steel shutters. it's common place to have them ready to go and put them up. people were ready to take this on. even with the precautions, a lot of them ended up leaving. >> you were in miami as a wee kid for andrew and you covered,

as we mentioned a number of storms. do you get a sense, over the years, people are heeding the warnings and do you see more and more people getting ready before any of the storms, whether a cat 4 or 1? >> reporter: yeah, you know, there were several -- for several years, there was a portion of people that were looking saying, oh, it's just a storm, no worries. they weren't really strong storms that were hitting. then we started seeing hurricane katrina. then we saw hurricane harvey. i think that's a wake-up call for people. when people are looking at that, seeing the disaster that was caused by both of those storms. people are realizing, wait a minute, we need to heed those warnings. i guarantee you that played into this when people wanted to leave, when they were looking at this category 4 storm coming at them. they said, we are getting out. we are not going to risk it. >> it's good to know so many

people did do that. thanks to you. thank you geo. in myrtle beach, south carolina, that town is under hurricane warning. tom joins us now from there. what is the situation there? >> reporter: good morning. right now, it is quiet. the palm trees are barely moving there. we are getting a little wind gust here and there. it's quiet. this is the atlantic ocean, as we pan over there. luckily, we are in low tide. that's going to change as the sun comes up and high tide comes in. in two or three hours, sam will know better than me because he is watching the radar. the hurricane will come toward myrtle beach. right now, it's quiet. anybody getting up early is going to come out and say this hurricane is a dud.

we are several hours from hitting myrtle beach. the good news is 75% to 80% of people who live in the evacuation zone got out. more than 420,000 people along the south carolina coast got out. county and city officials tell me they are worried about the people that stuck around, that 10%-15% who think they can ride out the storm. i spoke to them yesterday. they were comparing it to hurricane matthew. not a fair comparison. yes, it was a category 1. this storm is so much bigger and going to be more of a rain event. the flooding and storm surge is what they are worried about. they are worried about the south carolina coast as well. there is a curfew in effect at 7:00 this morning. my guess is they are going to extend that so people don't come out. the looky lous who want to challenge the storm. we'll see what happens there. only 2,000 customers are without power. that number is going to

skyrocket as florence moves through south carolina. it's horrible to lose power, scary to lose power in the middle of the night. the sun will come up in two hours. hopefully, it won't be too bad. guys? >> tom, this morning, we know fema teams from out of the state have been brought to north carolina. what type of resources have you seen in south carolina that have been brought in while you have been there? >> reporter: there's the florence arena, which is a place where they have events and house several hundred linemen there from different power companies from out of state, from what i understand. we haven't seen a lot of power companies out, yet. i think they are waiting it out because we haven't gotten any effects. even though we have tropical storm wind gusts, nothing has happened in myrtle beach. it's quiet. it's nice. it's really not raining yet. it will happen. it will happen during the day, when the sun is out, which is better for south carolina than the storm hitting at night like

we are seeing in new bern. we are not seeing line crews. they are watching and waiting at this point. staying indoors, resting, reserving their energy. it's going to be a long two or three days. we have a great meteorological team here. they haven't predicted this much rainfall in 25 years. they are getting ready for what will be a possibly life-changing event. >> the wind is whipping up behind you in the palm trees. it is clearly going to be a rain event there. myrtle beach, kind of dodged a bullet, at least so far. it is a resort town. i assume a lot of people thought the storm would move that way. i know it's the early morning hours. they are breathing a sigh of relief? >> reporter: look, everyone was scared because we were talking a category 3, category 4 a day ago. people are happy that it's somewhat not as powerful as

that. we know it's a serious storm. they are worried about the rainfall and always were. earlier, when i got here, we were doing reports about the giant ferris wheel that sits on the coast in myrtle beach. they said it can withstand hurricane force winds. they are worried about the storm surge ther surge. there's amusement parks, a ton of bars and stores, the air brushed t-shirts that so many of you are fans of. kenneth, i'm sure you love those t-shirts. all those stores line up the entire myrtle beach coast. they are worried about the storm surge coming in. once that comes in, the atlantic ocean is there. once that atlantic ocean comes in, you can't stop it. that's what they are worried about. >> there is a request from sam champion for a t-shirt. based on his instagram, he wants boys extra large.

>> nice. >> reporter: i'll see if they have one of those. >> thanks to tom there. >> let's check in with sam champion who has been with us all morning. >> guns out a lot of the time. i'm going to leave that one where it is. i will tell you the storm is for you. later today, into tomorrow morning. we are going to show you why and how with this wind field graphic we have that shows the prediction of the wind. let's get to the eye. the situation with this storm. i want to talk about this for a little while then i'm going to leave it up looping. there's a lot to tell with this one system. when you can watch a hurricane make a move across the atlantic and you are concerned about the category and looking at it through satellite, now, we know what kind of storm we have. we are waiting for the eye to get on shore. the worst part of the storm to get on shore. when it does, we hope to weaken the storm at that point.

en the wn yd, t wide field of blue looked like the eye was hard to find. it was way open. it was a few hours ago. now,ou can see these storms have really ringed the eye, tightened up and shown you where the eye is. hurricane center is saying this system is just about to have that eyewall and part of the eyewall is on shore. we are looking for part of the system to get on shore. they are also, in the last update, concerned it might stay on/off, on/off in a 12-24 hour period. we are concerned about that and the heavy rain band. the 90-mile-per-hour wind in the rain band from jacksonville to wilmington. now, these are the highest winds we have seen so far. 105-mile-per-hour wind.

86 miles per hour in jacksonville. 71 but really 76 in wilmington. let's put this wind field up. south carolina, if you are thinking this storm is not for you, it is. here is where the worst winds have been and are now. highest winds at 74-76 miles per hour, steady here in jacksonville, surf city, wilmington. myrtle beach, not in it yet. watch this move. the update on this graphic is not good, it's worse. this wind field, where it's greater than 74-mile-per-hour winds has expanded. it was just a small circle a little north of myrtle beach. now, myrtle beach is in hurricane force wind. this is even greater than that. some of the strongest winds of the storm, prolonged for a while, even well inland. the wind is a bad thing. now, let's deal with the rainfall. with the rain in this storm, the other thing we have seen, if nothing gets better, it expands to the west and drops to the

south a little bit. look at all this banding. we are going talk about this, columbia. you are in an area of 4-6 inches. this is for south carolina, later tonight and tomorrow, this is your storm. it's a north carolina coast is i cexed a wl. isorm. 16 ihes,okay5-40. looks like we are throwing numbers on the board. we are not. what we have seen overnight, this banding, thin, narrow, heavy bands of rain that run over, train over the same town over and over for hours, if this storm doesn't move very much. if you are under one of those bands, that's the number you get. if you are in and out of those bands, you are closer to 15 inches of rain. it's the worst part of the rain of the storm for this part of north carolina. also look at this, into the eastern part of south carolina. now, as you move away from that, 10-15 inches of rain, 6-10 inches of rain.

the other thing we need to tell you, south carolina, just the fact that the rain is there today and tomorrow doesn't mean that is all the flooding. we have looked at the river flood gauges. what we can tell you is, they peak by about tuesday in some areas of north carolina and south carolina. so, we have a prolonged flooding event. it's not just when it rains because it's going to take time for all that water to collect in the low lying areas and for the gauges to peak. when we see that one near new bern, this is the one we were talking about. this is terrible news, really, really bad news. when you look for the area, the new bern river, take this up to tuesday. there's the peak. there's the flooding. the 24 feet. there is floyd in 1999, 22. when you hear people saying this is a once in a lifetime storm, for the carolinas, it is. it doesn't mean we are comparing it with a cat 5 that destroyed

areas, but in the rainfall, they have never seen rainfall from any storm since 1851 that beats that, ever. so, this is the kind of thing we want everybody ready for, not only in north carolina, but south carolina. just, again, those are some of the rivers. that's the same thing we are into. kendis, stephanie, this is an all-day thing today. it did not weaken at all last night. >> i know, i mentioned before, a lot of people, the older generation who grew up in the carolinas, they keep notes of hazel. that was a legendary storm that killed a lot of people. that was more powerful as far as wind speed, but seems as if this is going to be as note worthy. >> as we say, each storm has different problems. this is really going to be flooding. really, really, really, flooding and wind damage. it will have storms with tornadoes. flooding is going to be the worst part. >> thanks for showing the network of rivers that make up

the carolinas. that's really going to have an impact on the flooding situation over the next couple days. sam, thank you. we should mention, there's somebody -- the number of rescues. we have heard of so many rescues. >> a woman in north carolina, in bay bern, getting reports she is stuck in her truck, surrounded by water. a mile away from her is her boyfriend and his cousin. they are stuck on a row boat. all of them in bayboro, north carolina. let's hear from her. >> stranded trying to come back to us. the neighbor had a boat in the yard and they got the boat from him and was trying to get back to us. right now, currently sitting in my truck watching the water rise, coming toward me, trying to get some type of help to get them from being stranded.

i think the current is holding them by the bridge. they are a half mile away from me. where they are at the deeper the water. >> there goes part of a dock. >> okay, some of the images we are getting from some of the citizens there in north carolina. you heard from kim dunn saying people were trying to rescue her. we had a woman whose friend tweeted at us in the early morning hours saying they were trapped in their vehicle and were really worried.

they were trapped in their home. we got an update. our producer spoke with a friend of them. four people are actually stuck in an attic ranging in age from 19-67 with no access to the roof and this young lady's phone is dying and the power went out. they are very, very frightened. we hope rescue folks have been able to get to them. sam tweeted to officials hoping they would get to them. >> we spoke to the city and they are aware of the situation and trying to get to at least 150 people that are trapped or just stuck, they have nowhere to go. she says they have emergency responders there, trying to get to them. they have two out of state fema teams in new bern, trying to help. >> speaking of fema, let's go to fema headquarters now. david kerley is there. a lot of people, especially after hurricane maria are laser focused on the work those people

are doing behind you and on the ground. this really is a test for fema. >> every big, major disaster is. this is the national response coordination center. as you can see, it's been manned all night. they are different elements of the government and state governments are represented here as well. the idea is to share information. as you have been talking with sam and others, this is changed. it's now a category 1. the worry, not so much the wind damage, but this is going to be a water event and flooding event. fema had to prepare for both and to assist them. fema is the coordinator here. they are not the first responders. that's up to the people on the ground. they are at place, meal, water, supplies in the states affected by the storm. like many others now, they are watching. really, it is a matter of once the storm passes, what can fema do to help those areas rebuild.

they are watching as all of us are, as the storm moves into the carolinas and brings all that water. i can tell you both, this surge danger is significant. i was in mississippi for katrina. i drove by the mississippi coast and saw beautiful mansions the night before katrina and the next day they were simply gone, completely swept off their foundation. this is a real danger, the surge, that is coming with this hurricane. guys? >> the national weather service reporting that florence, the eyewall of florence is on shore in north carolina. land fall of the center will occur very, very soon. what are some of the things that you seen there from those folks that are working for fema? how are they preparing once that storm does roll through? >> they have been preparing for a week now as, you know, this was a category 4, thought it was

going to be a bigger wind event. so, most of the preparation is done ahead of time, getting those supplies preset, getting the fema teams set there as well as here at the national response coordination center so that once the storm comes through, they know which issues they have to deal with, then throw the resources, whether it is manpower or the meals or water or tarps, whatever is needed into those areas that are affected. they have been preparing for some time. quite honestly, if you talk to anybody from fema, they have been preparing year round. they are ready for these storms. this has given them a lot of time to prepare. they have been watching it closely for a week. >> we can hope they are ready, indeed. david kerley, joining us from fema headquarters in d.c. we have a 6:00 a.m. update from the national hurricane center saying the eyewall, sam, is on shore. >> on shore. >> the storm is 10 miles east of

wilmington, north carolina. the other headlines that stand out to you as we look at the alert, sir? >> the one thing, i'm pulling it upright now, the one thing i see is a kind of weakening with the storm. we are not seeing anything like that. so, that, of course, is still trouble. still a category 1. i'm looking at movement right now. yeah. still west-northwest at 6 miles per hour. so, barely drifting. what the hurricane center has been saying about this lately is the concern that it will kind of ride the coast a little bit, stay as organized as it is now for several hours into the day. so, that means no one can let up the effects will stay as bad as they are, just traveling down the coast. so, if you have been south of the storm and south of the worst effects, you will not be south of it as the storm drifts to the south. you will slowly get into it.

that's for the entire coast of north carolina. if you are central north carolina south, be prepared. if you are in south carolina, that entire coastline as well, be prepared. this storm is drifting and holding. >> some of the other headlines i'm seeing from this update from the national hurricane center, the wind gusts within the eyewall itself, 90-100-mile-an-hour. jacksonville, north carolina, which already got a lot of rain, they are forecasting right now up to three inches of rain per hour, possible right there. you can see some of the wind gusts we have seen, the wind gusts so far. >> the new path shows how little movement florence will make in the next 24 hours, which is frightening, because of all the flooding that will occur during that time. >> yeah. and, this is what we were -- actually, a few things are on target with the storm, the flooding is one of them. the storm surge is another one. the wind speeds have been

everywhere with it. but the categories have been everywhere it. from initial forecast of the storm, we were forecasting this kind of rain. we may have expanded the area now into south carolina with the worst rains will be today, tonight, into tomorrow, but all of this, the worst impact of the storm always going to be flooding, continue to be flooding. as daylight comes up today, we are going to see what flooding occurred last night and see more flooding in communities during the day today. the one thing that hasn't changed are the rainfall totals. they are expected to be historic in this area. again, we have highlighted some of the areas that have been through many, many hurricanes, but not had the amount of rainfall with those hurricanes they will have with this one. >> we have been fortunate enough to have sam with us the last few hours. after the 6:00 hour, we'll have ginger zee with us. she's been out there as well as

amy robach. they will join us. our nonstop coverage of hurricane florence does >> announcer: this is an nbc 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 day's long onslaught just getting under way as this monster storm stalls. >> the lethal conditions unfolding right now and the hurricane's latest path on this abc news special report. >> we do say good morning, everyone. kendis gibson from abc news headquarters in new york along with stephanie ramos. our nonstop coverage of hurricane florence continues right now. we do want to get to amy robach in the thick of it right now. >> in the middle of it right now. amy. >> that's right. stephanie and kendis, we are really feeling the full brunt right now of hurricane florence. we have hurricane-force winds sweeping into wilmington right now. i want to give you a sense of where i am. i am on higher ground about five or six floors up on a covered parking garage so we're in a safe place but, man, are we

feeling the full power of these hurricane-force winds and have been watching just in the last 30 minutes the sky lighting up with green. transformers blowing all around us and that includes our hotel. we just watched it go into the dark. we are on generator power here now and pretty much everywhere i can see no one has power. the winds are whipping and, in fact, on our drive on the way over here we have a two-block drive up to the structure from our hotel and saw downed trees and we are in just the beginning hours here of these hurricane-force winds. and the rain that we are expecting here for not hours, but days, we are along the cape fear river and there is very incredible concerns it is going to reach flood stage at some point. we've got several rounds of high tide that we're going to be dealing with with this rain and these winds. so the residents who stayed here are, unfortunately, out of luck if they need help.

once you're in the situation where you have winds over 50 miles per hour, emergency crews cannot get out in these winds and you can see why if you're looking at my shot right now. and so they will have to wait until those winds dissipate. that is why they urged everyone to get out. they were careful to close the beaches here in wilmington. several days ago. to make sure people evacuated and i have to say, walking around town here yesterday, there was literally no one. just a few people who decided to stay back. either it was to protect their property or their businesses and they said that they had been through hurricanes before and they knew what they were dealing with. this area got hit, it was a while ago, though. it was over 20 years ago back in 1996 with fran and bertha so the people here for that know what they're doing, they said. just saw another transformer blow up. things are deteriorating very quickly in wilmington, guys. >> that is the key question that i'm curious about. you had the drive over there that was about a mile.

was it as you arrived at that balcony that things just went south? >> well, so when i woke up -- i tried to get a couple of hours of sleep and the wind was banging against my window, so things that relationship started to ki to kick up. when i walked down to my hotel lobby, it's already flooded. we have water in the lobby of ow hotel and it was about a two-block drive over here and we really could feel our car shaking and knew the winds were coming and right now for sure this is the worst of it that we've experienced so far this evening. and i think it's going to be this way for quite a little while. >> wind gusts there in wilmington reported at 82 miles per hour. >> 84. >> now 84, sam. wow. and, amy, talk to us about your situation where you are. we see you're holding on to the balcony railing there. we want to make sure you're safe so tell us how you're riding out the storm.

>> yes, well, we scouted out this area yesterday when the weather was calm to make sure we had protection so we have protection on both sides. this structure isn't going anywhere. it's a concrete parking garage covered this an al cove. we're in a protected area right now. so i can tell you that this is safe and i do need to hold on, though. if i didn't hold on i'm pretty sure i would be very unsteady on my feet. let's just say i also have our intrepid producer here ready to help if the winds get too bad but i've got a lot of people around me and we are staying safe. i can assure you of that. >> amy, describe what it sounds like. what does that feel like? 84-mile-an-hour wind gusts you're experiencing right now. i can't imagine. >> yes, yes, well, i mean it sounds like almost like thunder rolling and you can just feel the ferocity and we're a little

protected from the rain but i know having covered many other hurricanes and having even less protection than this, everyone says it but it feels like needles hitting your face. yeah, you get these gusts and that's why you have to make sure when you're reporting this that you've taken every precaution to make sure you're in a place where you're staying safe and we've done that and that's why obviously anyone who decided to stay back should not be out here because these gusts come up out of nowhere. yes, you have the sustained winds but it's the gusts that can cause the problems and also we're protected from flying debris which is always a concern in winds like this. >> i want to bring in ginger zee as well. you can see the difference right there. ginger is not too far from where amy is. she's in wilmington, as well. and ginger it appears the rain is a factor there where you are. >> oh, i mean it's not just the rain, kendis. we just watched three times over -- i mean within 50, 100

yards of us transformers blowing and that green hue taking over the sky. i happening. as i was standing here. i mean, we've had gusts to 84 miles per hour. there it goes again, oh, no. this is the epitome of gusting winds, guys. this is exactly what we talk about when you have a sustained wind of something and then gusts come through. it's really actually very frightening to see that close up a transformer blow but as amy said, we have obviously not had power. we lost power very early last night. i keep seeing throughout the street the lights flickering in the old town district, the historic district of wilmington. i've got trees behind me with large branches already down and this is an area that's just getting into the eyewall. that's right. the eyewall where the heftiest winds fly, that's where the thunderstorms really go as high

as they can around the eye when you see those videos of the hurricane hunters flying in you'll see what they call that stadium effect where the thunderstorms reach the very top and that's where all that energy comes from. that's where that intense round, i mean you talk about a severe thunderstorm and that's just one cell. we talk about the damage from that often. this is like lining up a hundred of those or more and rotating them around in a very slow process and that is what the inside the eyewall of a hurricane is doing and so that's what we're enduring right now here in wilmington. it really is going to take its time. making landfall. and then take its time getting inside into the coast and dying down and that's going to be the issue. i'm soaked already. i've been out here for all of five minutes and this type of rain, when you get 7 to 11 inches overnight and then we'll easily have that and more here, we're going to end up with some of those rain totals combining with the storm surge that will bring us forecasted 30 plus inches. >> you have a leaf there.

go ahead, on your face. >> there you go. >> it's all good. >> hard to tell the difference between a leaf and the rain. >> you're in the worst winds right now and just talk to people about how this situation could last for them for hours and hours and the kind of damage with this kind of wind and rain that even a category 1 can bring a community. >> it's exactly right, and, sam, i'm so glad you've been with us. i want to thank you for doing that and allowing us to get some rest. you're right. when you have that thunderstorm i talk about that is like a severe thunderstorm, it moves through, it moves on, it's usually cooking at 30 miles an hour. there it goes again. that transformer keeps blowing. okay. the entire sky filled with green. it's just very, very frightening. there. do you see it again? wow. and the sparks are flying. i don't know how many times this

thing can blow. okay. so, right, so when you have this type of wind like a severe thunderstorm that is sitting over you, for hours, and we're talking about the potential for this type of wind to be here for six hours or so. we were talking about tropical storm force wind for more than 40 hours. you take a power line, a perfect example and tear at it. eventually it is going to rip like it keeps doing. i mean, it's unbelievable how many things are happening here. the entire street just went dark. this is why you would never want to be driving or venturing out because people get so concerned about our safety. i'm on a balcony that was through dozens of these hurricanes because it's been here for more than a hundred years protected by a door and we always put ourselves and if anything starts to get hairy, i'm dugging in. i'm not standing out to show you. it's more to give you --

millions of people at the coast are dealing with this. >> you were going to mention and take a look at the radar to get a sense of what you're going through right now. and where the storm is. >> yeah, i think a lot of times people look at radar and i think of my makeup artist and my hairstylist saying what does that mean when you see those reds and oranges on top of the yellow, that's where the heaviest rain but also usually wind is coming along with that and so that center eyewall that is kind of displaced a little close to us in wilmington, i mean it's like my best friend -- thousand that power -- goodness gracious. okay, i'm going to step in just a little for that one. when you see that eyewall getting close to you, you know that it is going to be -- >> you're also not in the worst part of that -- i'm sorry. you're also not in the worst part of that storm yet. there's still some worse weather to the north of you that will

curve down on top of you so be careful there. >> that's right. that northeast corner of the storm is always more powerful. that's where you've seen that storm surge build up over time. oh, that was a little something too. i probably have six ticks on my face now. that's where the water combines with all the fresh water falling. remember, i was talking to an expert that knows the waterways, the river very well here and telling me how concerned he was because they had never seen -- not just a one-two punch of water falling and storm surge but a one-two punch at the same time, a simultaneous punch where the storm surge plugs up those rivers, those creeks and the riverlets. i know you've been detailing that but that's what we're seeing with all those folks in new bern. >> ginger, your shot tells everything. it's the most incredible shot, just rit ght in time for peopleo see. your shot tells it all.

>> yes, and my friendly transformer down the road. >> important to stress when the national weather service lowers this to a category 1 it is still intense. i know some people may have relaxed -- it guess again. some may have been a little more relaxed when they saw this category 1 going from a category 4 but it is still intense, still the potential for life-threatening storm surge there. >> absolutely. i mean and that's the thing, i think people -- the categories and i know sam has been talking about this throughout the night. people get very confused really about what the categories mean. there are a lot of memes that go on with them but it's not funny when you have a 90-mile-per-hour max sustained wind and liken to severe thunderstorms. every morning on "good morning america" i usually bring some sort of picture from somewhere in the nation that's had a severe thunderstorm with a 58 for 64-mile-per-hour gust and you have power lines come down

and pieces of roofs pulled off. and imagine that plus 30 miles per hour. that's where we're at right now. >> just absolutely incredible. you see that transformer repeatedly blow out over there. we should tell you the latest update on some power outages, more than 300,000 people are without power and that's in north carolina alone. >> that makes sense. >> not surprising at all to you, ginger, based on what you're feeling and seeing right there, correct? >> absolutely. i mean i anticipate that number to go up because this thing -- i can't imagine it keep going but this thing is going to keep moving so slowly inward that inland spots, inland towns from here are going to be seeing the wrath of this storm and that's what you have to keep in mind. it's not just going to stop here at wilmington. it's not going to stop at new bern but keep moving westward and have these really strong gusts with it. >> now, often we talk about these hurricanes and these tropical storm systems and the rain bands. it seems as if you're not just

in a rain band but in the entire rainstorm for a relentless amount of time. it has been nonstop, the intensity. >> yes, and that's thewhen you you see reds and oranges, those deep colors, they usually progress. they usually move from west to east across our nation. this is what makes a tropical system so different. this is what makes florence so different. it will take its time making its way onshore and here's what we keep talking about but when you have floyd in 1999 inches and that is your top, that's your record in north carolina as far as rain from a tropical system, i think we can easily, easily outdo this and that's what makes it so different than what we've seen before. >> a couple of days ago you were on "gma" talking about going down there to north carolina and you didn't anticipate being back until at least sunday because of the intensity of the damage that's expected there. you think it's living up to that

dire warning? >> yes, i think -- i kept saying i don't think i'm coming home to till monday and i don't think i'm coming home till monday if we even stay longer so i think that is still a prediction i would make at this moment. >> ginger, amazing to see your video there, your shot there, but while we'll still have you, we do want to talk about the town of new bern and get your thoughts on it. new bern has been hard hit. we have some new video of the time lapse here of the water rising. we saw the before and after picture of this where 1:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon this same little shot here from the nest cam was fairly dry and then by 5:00 p.m. it started. >> that water rising quickly and we know there have been a lot of issues in the town of new bern. at least 150 people stranded waiting for emergency responders to make their way there and, of

course, again that flooding just continuing there in that town of new bern, north carolina. >> ginger, this is a town we are most concerned about. you're based in wilmington but what are you concerned about? what community? >> so, yeah, new bern obviously. one of my -- my old students i used to teach a meteorologist class at my alma mater and one of my students works there in her second job in television and she and i have been in close contact because i needed to know more about new bern as i woke up and she was telling me about the community, about the people there. it is heartbreaking to know that that river backed up and has backed up now so much so with the flash flood warning over them that they are so far from over with what this catastrophe is happening as we speak and it's not going to stop throughout the day today and that is the very scary part and think it's a -- it's showing us precedence of what could happen in other rivers, in other creeks

and in other towns and that's very frightening as well to see because, again, like i talked about she actually hooked me up with that expert because she used to work with him down here to talk about all that water. storm surge, it's hard for people to conceive what it is. when the hurricane is moving across the ocean, it is piling up basically a bubble of water underneath it. it has to do with pressure and wind and waves. it's a bubble of water. that bubble transfers and translates with the hurricane as it approaches shore that bubble bursts onto shore. can you think of it that way and keeps bursting. in this way because the storm hasn't moved it just keeps mo shoving that up against the coast so you're just having not just one six-hour time period of storm surge you could have up to 24 hours of storm surge and that's where we're going to see such big issues beyond new bern even i think in some of the other communities as well. >> it's sam again. so as your shot was up, as you

had the worst weather of -- since we have been on the air that's a 91-mile-per-hour wind gust that you were just standing through, also want to tell people there is a flash flood warning exactly where you are which won't surprise anyone who's been watching your shot because they've been watching that rain behind you just i mean the brutal rain continue. that flash flood warning includes wilmington, murraysville, lela, north carolina, the flash flooding from the rain, not that onshore push of water. it's just simply from the rain. >> right and that's the thing. i keep asking for updated numbers on rain totals because i really think we'll end up seeing some significant rain totals out of all of this and it's going to be that combo. i was saying last night when talking on "nightline," sam, i never covered a hurricane away from a beach and it was very -- it was unsettling as a meteorologist and a storm chaser because i thought, well, now how is this going to work out? how will we have something? they said mandatory evacuation.

you cannot be at wrightsville beach. you cannot be at topsail beach because we need people out of there. i am so pleased that they made those mandatory evacuations because i would not want to be there. this is the only place and this is bad enough and so many people live in this town. so many people came from the islands. i spoke to a woman, arlene from oak island and she was so hesitant to leave but she said, my mom lives here in wilmington. she begged me to come and i'm sure arlene is waking up this morning with the same feeling i have saying, thank goodness we're in wilmington versus seeing it at the beach. >> we saw the pictures of, you know, before we got into the nighttime hour of the water moving onshore. as soon as you get daylight i can't imagine what that coastline will look like and how much damage will be there and this storm as we pointed out many times each storm is different but this storm is about what's going on around you right now and the millions of people who are experiencing

exactly what you're experiencing with this storm and we'll see it for the rest of this day like that. >> and you know what i was thinking when you guys were asking me about new bern, this made me think about sandy because when i was covering sandy i know, sam, you were in new york for us and i was in atlantic city. atlantic city started flooding eight hours before it made landfall. we were waist deep in water in parts of atlantic city by 11:00 a.m. and that thing didn't make landfall until 7:00. that's what was happening in new bern. when i think of scary water and tropical systems or in that case, ef txtra tropical. i think of sandy and that's what we were so concerned about here. the amount of time and because sandy came at the coast perpendicular like this, just like this is unique for north carolina to have a storm come at us perpendicular. it's that big high that really drove it here and those are the similarities between these two

storms. >> yeah, it's incredible. it has been, you know, you picked a safe location to be at so we know you've been safe throughout the time that we've been on the air but, ginger, i'll tell you, watching what you've been in front of for the last, what is it, 20 minutes? has been just unbelievable. and for everyone who has felt this storm was not going to deliver to warnings, your live shot shows us it will. >> the completely dark street. when i walked out at 5:55 it was lit up. that's not the indication anymore. >> for the last couple of hours, you've been there, ginger, for a good amount of time. you said you spoke with that lady who chose to stay there in wilmington. have you spoken with anyone else

that wanted to stay and tell us what were some of their reasons for staying and were they taking the proper precautions? >> yeah, i have spoken to a lot of people that live here and actually one of the guys i met last night and his daughter were both surfers and said, believe me, we follow the weather very closely. she's actually one of the top surfers for teenagers in the united states. i wish i could remember her name right now but what they were telling me is we have gone through so many of these storms and we've seen a lot of them. this one we are taking so seriously because they don't see storms like this. and so it was good to hear from people that they at least all the people i met no one was downplaying it because this is their home. this is where they live. you can downplay it when you live somewhere far away. you can't do that when it's going to be torturing your home and coastline for two days straight. >> all right. our big thanks to ginger zee who is going to be there for "good

morning america" throughout the morning, of course, she's there and right in the middle of all that rain and also the wind, wind whipping up to 91 miles an hour there in wilmington. the video you saw just a second ago by the way was the emergency center, emergency services center in new bern, north carolina, being flooded. these are the folks that are supposed to come to your rescue in an emergency like this and this is their services center right there being flooded by this water there in new bern. new bern is definitely one of the headlines that we will be talking about after this storm. >> new bern for the last couple of hours being hit by this storm and you can see that rushing water there. we're going to check in with julie wilson. she is with our raleigh affiliate and she is in the middle of it there in hard-hit new bern. >> kendis and stephanie, we are right next to the craven county emergency services and this is

what we are looking at. here in new bern, you can see water over the roads, in fact, as we were making our way into town we had to turn around, water was over the street, we're less than a mile away from the neuse river and that is what is flooding. that is what is pushing all of this up. they started experiencing this last night. i had the opportunity to speak with the gentleman with the cajun navy. they are here. he told me they were looking and had around 500 calls for rescue. right now they are scouting out streets looking to see what they can do as soon as more of the cajun navy arrives so they can make rescues. the gentlemen told me they were getting reports of water up to roofs already. florence is not completely here in this area and this is an area that could experience mass storm surge. anywhere from seven to 11 feet. that's what we're keeping our eye on. i had the opportunity to speak with someone here with new bern, a city official and they're telling me there is mass power outages and i can attest to

that. we haven't seen a stop light that starting working yet and, of course, this band here, there's a kur tu in new bern. it will not be lifted until 8:00 a.m. this morning. kendis and stephanie? our thanks to julie wilson from our raleigh station. we want to go to gio benitez who has been in the outer banks in kitty hawk or his shot right now in kitty hawk, north carolina, and you can see the sun is starting to come up there. it'll be sunrise at 6:45 but you can see from the shot the ocean, it is fairly angry up there in kitty hawk and that's well north of where the storm is right now or the heart of the storm is right now. >> yeah, we expect those waves to be tough all the way up and down the coast. by the way for people who are waking up with us this morning, the size of this storm if you took virginia, north carolina and south carolina stacked together that's the size of florence. >> wait. give me that again. >> virginia, north carolina, south carolina, you stack them together, that's the size of

florence. >> we're talking hundreds of miles. >> covering several states. >> massive storm. >> one of the things also that i thought was of note is the eye itself is 50 miles across. now, gio is pointing out earlier people -- when it eventually comes ashore they might think it's safe and because it's going to take so long during that eyewall, but it really isn't a safe time to come out. >> yeah, this storm doesn't have that clean perfect eye that you would see in a higher category where you get that whisper quiet moment when the eye passes over you if you've ever -- people remember when they've been in the eye of a hurricane because it's this unsettling strange quiet. this storm doesn't have that. it has a very sloppy rainy eye and what we wish for is for the eye to go onshore. that is what we need to happen with this storm to get everybody less effect from the storm but it just doesn't look like it's going to in the next few hour. >> right now in the state of north carolina just massive

power outages, at least 321,000 customers without power right now. we've been in touch with the public information officer and a lot of these counties, emergency responders doing their best to get to those folks in need and trapped and stuck where they are. >> as we continue to look at this live picture at kitty hawk, north carolina, the forecast for this storm has shifted quite a bit. i would say over the last week it's been constantly being adjusted and at one point kitty hawk appeared as if it would get quite a bit of brunt of the storm. last night watching gio from this location and he was getting beaten up a little by the winds and you can see the surf is definitely kicking up as well. north of there, norfolk, the ships have been put out to sea. just as a precaution because they thought the storm would really, really hit the virginia area but then it started making a left hook, starting going down and doing a loopty loop or what

is the technical turn? >> there really isn't a technical turn. it will drift and move so one of the things that when you widen out to look at this storm, it looked like the storm did a northern jog but when you widen out and look at the loop longer what happened with this storm is it never really made a northward move. the northern side of the eyewall shifted a little bit and in that time period when we were saying can't find the eye, it looked like the storm drifted a little to the north but it's been pretty steady on this west-northwest move and now it's actually just moving west. >> it's been incredible to see this storm just move west because we've been here for several hours now and taking a look at ginger's live shot in wilmington where it's just getting battered it's incredible and we're getting reports that a buoy offshore of wilmington is gusting at 97 miles per hour. the winds there at 97 miles per hour which is intense. >> intense. >> very heavy band is coming

into wilmington. our nonstop coverage of hurricane florence does continue right now. >> announcer: this is an abc news special report. hurricane florence. >> and hurricane florence is a monster at this hour. it's 6:30 eastern time. i'm kendis gibson here at abc news headquarters in new york along with stephanie ramos. >> our nonstop coverage of hurricane florence continues right now. that hurricane expected to make landfall very soon -- >> here she goes. >> here are some of the scenes we've seen in the overnight hours. it is causing quite a bit of damage to the area and quite a bit of flooding. we've learned most noteworthy about 70 people being rescued from a hotel in the town of jacksonville. officials say a large hotel

was -- a large hole was found in the building and some sendcinde blocks were crumbling. >> hurricane-force winds making it challenging for emergency responders to get to those people stuck there in that hotel to get them out. right now we check in with emily rau who is in wilmington, north carolina. >> good morning, hurricane florence is inching inland but causing major problems here in downtown wilmington, north carolina, as you can tell, the winds really picking up and the rain driving down in sheets. florence is moving less than ten miles per hour inland but the wind coming with it, ten times as fast. >> once these winds start blowing at that tropical storm rate, it will be virtually

impossible virtually impossible for the rescuers to get in to rescue you. >> reporter: those tropical storm force winds blasting an area hundreds of miles wide ripping off this gas station canopy in topsail beach, north carolina. as first responders pull back 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. and here there are trees down but the power is still on. that is not the case for a whole lot of people, though, this morning. at latest count 280,000 people now at least without power as this storm really gets going. in wilmington, north carolina, i'm emily rau with abc news. now back to you. >> we should mention that number has grown to more than 300,000. that's just in wilmington or in north carolina alone. this is a live picture where ginger zee was standing moments ago and you can see the rain and wind coming down and hitting hard right there in wilmington.

>> winds now gusting to 91 miles per hour. that is from the national weather service. 91 miles per hour there in wilmington, north carolina. >> in jacksonville, just north of there they're forecasting rain coming down at a pace of 3 inches an hour. just absolutely remarkable. derek waller of our new york station wabc made his way to jacksonville and has this report. >> reporter: here in jacksonville, north carolina, we're seeing some of the heaviest wind and rain of the day standing next to this building blocking the wind. can you see the fierce wind pushing those trees sideways. but really that is the secondary story. the main story here is the water that florence is going to produce. already we've been seeing some heavy flooding in parts of coastal areas of north carolina and that storm surge expected to be between 9 and 13 feet, that could be deadly. that water is going to continue

for a couple of days. florence could sit over north carolina through the weekend. back to you. >> and that's the troubling thing, our thanks to derick waller from wabc. >> we've got more live pictures to show you coming from morehead city. this is video from morehead city, north carolina. you can see that debris that this storm has left behind ands that -- the storm isn't over yet. this long-lasting storm that is going to hover over the carolinas for quite some time. this new video coming in to us from morehead city, north carolina. >> and there have been reports for several hours now that we've been there that there's been structural damage. it's hard to tem in the overnight hours. when daylight comes which is about 6:45 for the carolina coast that's when it's really going to set in on how bad this has been. mind you, the storm is still

hitting hard. probably not a good idea for many people to go out to survey the damage as yet. but i imagine, sam, with the daylight coming, maybe it's possible and might be a little safer for those rescue crews to be able to get out there and try to get to some of those people right now desperately trapped. >> the difficult thing about this is rescue crews cannot put themselves in the kind of danger that is ongoing in this storm right now and, remember, that was well broadcast to people who decided to stay where they were in place. now, that doesn't count the people who got involved in inland flooding like in new bern where the storm created such a problem in that area but still the situation is it's not safe for first responders to get out there when we're in the middle of a storm just like what you saw and so that's why they're telling people, you just have to wait. you got to wait till it's safe enough for people to get in there and help you. >> let's take a look at the radar. we haven't at least in the last ten minutes or so and get a

sense of where the storm is, any sort of movement we've kind of noticed or seeing wind gusts of up to 100 miles an hour in wilmington, north carolina. >> it's a great thing to point out because, you know, 97-mile-per-hour wind gusts on the buoy and 97 miles per hour wind gusts and everyone was saying it's a 90-mile-per-hour storm. it's 90 miles per hour steady winds, sustained winds so even in that you're going to get gusts well above that mark. so you could easily have gusts above 100 miles per hour in these places and that's the kind of gust after a building or tree or power pile -- pole has been whipped by, that's the thing that takes everything right down. the gusts above the category are certainly possible and we will see them for the rest of the day. in that line if you follow that red all the way around with us when ginger zee was live on the air, in that shot, she was in that red zone, that red zone passed right over her. that's the worst part of the storm that she actually

broadcast to you showed y eyewl moving onshore in wilmington. so you got a chance to see that live. it's not something that happens every day on television and ginger was standing there showing you the effects, the worst effects of the storm so there's the rain. we expect more of it. the other thing, look at this line that goes through cape lookout and way whaback to jacksonville. i wanted to see new bern. new bern is a little break from a band. it's a break they have not had for, what, five or six hours now. so it doesn't mean they're not getting rain and not getting wind, they are but not in the worst banding that's coming onshore right now. that's reserved for jacksonville who is getting it and also wilmington and you just look for those shades of the orange and yellow and red to see where the worst part is. >> several miles wide affecting, of course, millions of people

but a big concern that we've seen throughout the morning is the flooding. once that water makes its way into these towns, it's got nowhere to go. >> we have 2.9 million people underneath the hurricane wa warnings of this storm. but more people are going to be affected. you're right, inland areas, it doesn't have to be the hurricane-force winds to be a problem. we're talking about the entire state of north carolina, the entire state of south carolina having problems with flooding and there will be some areas, the areas under those bands that you're looking at right now on that radar that see this situation and that is the kind of flooding that north carolina has never seen before. it is the possibility that we will get well above 15 inches of rain in some of those areas. we already have in some of those areas overnight. we haven't had a chance to measure them well. when we do get a chance to measure we got more. i say that because early within the first six-hour period we had 12, 13 inches so more than 15

inches of rain in a lot of locations, we won't know until we're able to measure how much rain we've had and possible that we'll see up to 40 inches of rain in some communities who stay under those bands for long periods of time. >> when i was younger it seemed as if we always talked about the wind speed and that seemed to be the important factor and later and more recent years it seems as if the flooding has become more of the issue. why is that? does it have to do with the topography or where we're building that the flooding has become more of the killer. >> stomaome storms don't have a of rain with them that drive a lot of wind. some storms move so quickly and ginger kind of talked about it a little bit we're used to seeing them move quickly and bring in a lot of rain but that drives right by as well. it sits in place and that rain stays on top. i will admit for years and, you

know, going back 20 year, 30 years we didn't talk a lot about the after-effects of storms when they moved inland. d the and show you that came from tennessee and kentucky was part of a tropical system. we'd watch it move onshore and go, bye-bye, that's the hurricane. the hurricane is done and might talk about some tropical characteristics but we wouldn't necessarily follow the rain. what we learned in years and years of following these storms, remember, with modern technology with satellites and radar and live cam are, we've been able to follow these storms, understand a lot more what happens and understand that they can be dangerous, deadly, disastrous as they move inland and can be that way for days and weeks after they've made landfall and impact so we're now we're much more aware of getting communities warned inland about the kind of effects they will see from a storm like this days after it's made landfall.

>> great that the conversation has changed towards the flooding impact. i'll tell you wilmington is dealing with both right now. they just had a 100 mile-per-hour wind gust and emily rau is there. the situation clearly deteriorating from the last time we saw you. >> reporter: yes, it is, good morning. these winds are no joke. they've really picked up in the last 30 minutes or so. this is the first time this rain that's hitting me in the back is actually stinging. it's coming down so hard and so fast, so that's what we're dealing with. looking behind me to see that the traffic signals are still on so we still have power in this part of downtown wilmington but as you know, so many people now at this point don't but do you see that whirling and that thunderous wind, so loud and just crazy, it's almost hard to stand up. you think about people who are out in this either needing to be rescued or reports you mentioned and talking about people on the roofs of their homes to be without cover in these elements

clearly a very dangerous situation. i have heard one set of sirens but it's been a little bit even from that because at this point conditions are just too risky. >> emily, do you have something to hold on to where you are right now. we know the wind is certainly picked up a lot since the last time we checked in with you. >> yes, stephanie, yeah, we are protected. we are near shelter if we need to run inside. so that maybe gives you more perspective. i'm not even all the way out into the unprotected area. the wind is that strong but we do have a place to hold on to and i've got a great crew with me. >> you can see the wind is whipping up there in wilmington, north carolina. they had that really powerful band we saw just a few moments ago and, emily, has it been deteriorating over the last hour? give me a time frame of like how

it has gone downhill. >> you know what, i would say probably the last 30 minutes is where we've really gotten into the thick of it and just we were peeking at the radar listening to you talk about the movement of this storm and i can tell it just, you know, right as it was the edge of the eyewall coming closer to us the wind starting gusting a lot more and seemed like the sustained wind level was higher and i've had to sort of lean forward and hold on more often in the last i would say 20 minutes or so. my leg is even getting a little shaky from standing in it and bearing the brunt of the wind on my back but the rain is heavierment it's swirling and sort of like what i would imagine the inside of a washing machine to be like so no sign of slowing down either. i'm seeing those traffic signals just way in the wind like they could snap at any moment. >> and, emily, we know right now the north carolina department of public safety is reporting

340,000 customers at least without power right now so it's incredible that you could still see that the traffic signals are going. >> the lights are still on. >> the lights are still on there. where ginger is located, in wilmington, a different story. have you seen what other -- >> this is ginger's live shot. you can't see it, emily, but the lights are on. their generators are working and the wind is really blowing there. what have you noticed as far as transformers exploding? what have you seen? >> reporter: we, again, i think are pretty protected. maybe even more so than we realize right around the corner, i know all the trees are down so there's that to consider. but i think it speaks to just the gust of wind where we are. i mean, there is a big brick column so that's sheltering a little bit but also up on a hill so that shields us a little bit but it's really from block to

block and depending on what is standing in the way of this wind, just, you know, it's sort of touch and go. you don't know what is going to happen. there's some buildings behind me across the street all boarded up but the awnings, those are really rattling and seems like they're getting looser as well so keeping a close eye on it to make sure we're safe. >> emily rau there in wilmington, north carolina, where it is really starting to hit hard as well and as you look at the radar, there's one thing that sam and i have gone back a little bit on this morning but he's the one with the meteorology degree. >> what, what. >> to me i would say that it has made landfall based on just looking at it but apparently the official folks -- the official folks say when 25% of the eyewall or the eye has made it onshore that's when official landfall is and we haven't gotten that as yet. you say landfall is when? >> look, after 35 years of doing

this, sometimes i make up my own rules. >> ha did you start -- >> don't start. i've always said, look, the storm's made landfall when the eyewall comes in. the hurricane center and those who are official and meteorologists stickelers for detail say when the center of the storm or 25% of the storm is on shore, so there will be a debate with this whether or not it has made landfall completely yet because you can see the center of circulation where it is and, again, the hurricane center kind of expects that part of the circulation if not most of it will stay offshore for a little bit and may wobble around, may bounce back out and come back in a little bit so we're going to be playing eyewall games with this storm for awhile. >> i do have a technical question about that. at that point with a little bit of the eye onshore is it weake? >> yes, you know, thewisdom or storm like this, it will continue to circulate if it has

water to feed on. if the entire center of circulation is over water. once part of the circulation gets on land it gets disrupted. and you begin to see the category come down usually. you begin to see the wins come down usually. i say usually because this storm hasn't behaved the way you would normally expect a storm to behave from the get-go so this storm again the hurricane center says they expected it to maintain category 1 strength for awhile longer. it does look like to me that it's shredding a little bit. it will take a lot of effort for those storms to come back into a circular position, but i'm not going to go against them. if they say that i'll stay with that and tell people to expect a category 1 storm for the entire day today. if we get lucky and this thing has moved onshore enough to disrupt and weaken, boy, that's good news for all of us, but expect just like we told you to leave and prepare and expect for a storm, expect this storm will stay a category 1 because the

last couple of updates from the hurricane center says they think so. >> even if it weakens there's still that high risk of flash flooding to the carolinas. >> that doesn't go away. >> spreading into virginia for sunday. >> all right. >> look at kitty hawk, north carolina and look at those waves. >> wow. >> those are huge. we're going to look up to try to figure out exactly how big those wave reports are, but just from someone who is looking on right now, that is very, very impressive, this is well north of the center of the storm. the storm is just near the wilmington area. these, of course, being the outer banks of north carolina. what is completely shut down right now to many visitors, gio was saying it will cost about $40 million in lost business. many are saying at the end of the day it will be a $170 billion storm for this entire country. >> extensive damage there. in that area. earlier we heard from amy robach who was being battered by wind and rain. let's check in with her.

>> we have wind gusts over 80 miles per hour right now. and we are in a very safe structure here. we are in a parking garage about five floors up. just saw another transformer explode. we're on generator power here. anyone who has any kind of lights is on generator power. we watched our hotel lights go dark and been seeing more transformers explode across the sky. wilmington is in the dark at this hour, so many people, hundreds of thousands have already lost power and this is just the beginning unfortunately. the strong winds have come in but the rain will be the big story here in the state of north carolina at least for now. we have several rivers that will crest after not hours of rain but days of rain, the next high tide is a couple of hours from now and we'll be able to reassess just where the status of these rivers are. we already know some towns in the state have begun to flood up in new bern and that is the concern here in downtown wilmington. we have to say yesterday we were talking around. it was a ghost town.

i would say the majority of residents here evacuated and when you see the conditions here, that is absolutely a good thing. we had a couple blocks to get over to the structure from our hotel. already saw downed trees and, again, those transformers exploding all across the night sky. we will continue to update you on the deteriorating conditions here in wilmington, north carolina, throughout the day. for now for abc news here in wilmington, north carolina, i'm amy robach. >> amy, thank you for that report. holding on tight to that railing. all right. well, joining us now live on the phone is jessica loper, these the public information officer in new hanover county in wilmington. that has been battered for the last couple of hours. >> that's correct. good morning. >> good morning. thanks for joining us. tell us what you're dealing with right now. >> we're having a lot of strong winds as amy just described over the past about an hour.

we've experienced an intensification of in our winds, a lot more rain, rain coming from all angles it appears but we're just hunkering down right now. we hope our residents are staying safe and inside during this which we think is probably the worst part of the storm for us. >> are you getting any major reports of damages so far, flooding, power outages? what are you hearing? >> we haven't had a lot of flooding reports right now but we are getting a lot of reports of downed power lines, downed trees, a lot of transformers blowing. a lot of customers without power across the region. we have more than 72,000 folks in our area alone without power. >> are you hearing reports of people needing help, needing to be rescued in new hanover county. >> we don't have any water rescues reported at this time. we've had a few life safety

events that are public safety officials have had to respond to but no rescues at this time. >> jessica mentioning there that some 72,000 people or 72,000 power customers are without electricity right now. it's a county of only about 220,000 so that's a large base right there in the dark. any idea when your officials will be able to get out there and assess the damage? >> we think hopefully once the winds die down and are less than tropical storm force we can start mobilizing some folks to go out and do damage assessment and check on properties and people. we don't know exactly when that is going to be yet. we're just kind of waiting for this storm to pass. as you know it's moving very slowly so i think we've got a little bit more time before that happens. >> our thanks to jessica loeper telling us the latest.

monitoring it. they suspect there are damages there in the area but we'll have to wait until it's a little safer for them to go out and check it out. >> sam, we've been watching this for the last several hours. we've seen the rain moving in. whipping around. that wind pelting a lot of our correspondents that are out there in the middle of this. how much longer do you think -- i know we were talking about it lingering, this storm lingering over the carolinas for quite some time rutting this that flash flooding but how much longer before it moves farther west. >> it is easier to forecast it when it is well out in the atlantic traveling. now that it's interacted with land we'll do a lot of now casting and the national hurricane center will re-adjust based on what it is doing. their last update had that storm from north carolina coast where it is right now to south carolina for the remainder of this day and on into saturday as well basically making saturday -- making it saturday a

south carolina storm. >> i know we've been talking so much about north carolina and get a sense that north carolina is going to be the area hardest hit but there are several states and millions of americans who are in the path and will have a very, very soggy couple of days, if not a week ahead. >> could end up having worse flooding than they've seen in the history of their community. that is the kind of power this storm can deliver and it should not be discounted in south carolina. even though the coastal impacts of south carolina will not be -- you're exactly right, what it was in north carolina. but the flooding in south carolina could be as bad as if not worse from the fresh water rainfall because we're looking at some areas in south carolina, again, in that same possibility of being 15 to 40 inches of rain. and as low as south carolina is, they could have real problem. >> tropical storm gordon dumped a whole lot of rain in some parts of the country.

the map up there. the syracuse area as well -- as far north as syracuse, new york, will get anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain. >> several states for many miles, millions of people affected but i mean you said it, south carolina, north carolina, virginia, new york. >> there goes the rainfall forecast. >> and here's something that's important to know about when you see this map. and you're looking at a lot of heavy rainfall in north carolina. all right, well, most of the watershed from north carolina drains into south carolina. so, you know, we've talked about the flooding that will continue in parts of north carolina peaking by tuesday even after the rain is gone some of the floodwaters will peak. south carolina could be even longer than -- the peak could be tuesday into wednesday for some of those rivers because there's so much water draining out of the heavy rain in north carolina as well as the rain they've received. >> this is something folks will be dealing with for quite some time. >> and the other headline here is and i know we're running out of time but the other headline here is what kendis was talking

about, once the storm leaves there, we need to talk to people about ohio, kentucky, tennessee, points north and northern new england about the rainfall they'll get on into the middle and end of next week. >> we're nearing the end of our coverage but do want to mention to sum up like a little bit of what has caught our eye in the overnight hours. the city of new bern, north carolina, appears to be hard hit. a lot of rescues taking place overnight. a lot of people still hoping to be rescued. the city of wilmington, one of 117,000 residents is being hit really, really hard right now as you can see from these live images. one-third of the residents there evacuated. there are plenty of people riding out the storm. >> in the state of north carolina, widespread power outages, at least 365,000 customers without power. we do know that emergency responders are out there in new

bern trying to get to those people that need some rescuing. you're looking at some video out of wilmington, north carolina, you can see what this storm has done to that gas station. plenty of structural damage around in north carolina. >> there it goes. >> you can watch this one. >> here she goes. >> this is at topsail beach as you can see. this was caught on camera but no doubt there were plenty of scenes like this. sam was saying with a storm like this, they do spawn a lot of different activities and we have a new tornado watch, i believe, sam. >> we have a new tornado watch that's been extended longer. i believe it's into, what, 9:00 p.m. and extends north so raleigh is now in that tornado watch. >> all right, you see the zone right there, those are the areas under a tornado watch. we had a tornado warning a few hours ago in raleigh, north carolina. unclear if anything has touched down. i do believe we have new video coming in to us from reed timmer

would works for accuweather from new bern, north carolina. look at the flooding there. >> you can see that water is almost as high as the street signs. >> yeah, you can gauge on that building it's almost up to the top of the first floor. that's a lot of water right there. >> and it's not over yet for this area. at all. new bern, we saw by 5:00 p.m. it was nearly flooded and so it's been some 12 hours of that nonstop rain pounding that area. >> new bern has gotten hit pretty badly but also towns like jacksonville, of course, wilmington, we've seen those live shots from ginger zee and amy robach and emily rau there in the middle of it. the storm intensifying over the last couple of hours as we expected it. causing a lot of damage there in

wilmington and plenty more damage expected in the next couple of hours. and throughout the weekend. >> even as of the last report it was still 90-mile-an-hour storm. it is still dropping a whole lot of rain. sam, less than a minute left before we toss over to "good morning america." what do you think we'll be talking about in the days ahead? what is the headline of this? >> flooding, flooding, flooding, flooding. >> we do hope a lot of people stay safe throughout this but many of these storms and you guys mentioned flooding is the thing that kills most folk. >> yeah, absolutely and the terrible thing is that it will be prolonged flooding even in inland areas in south carolina, north carolina particularly. >> all right. our thanks to sam champion who has been holding down the fort for us throughout the night. we appreciate it and we do thank you for being with us for our continuing coverage all night here on abc as we turn things over now to "good morning america" with robin, george and michael. >> don't forget to check in on abcnews.com and abc news, the app for coverageday.

i'm stephanie ramos. >> and i'm kendis gibson. have a good day and best wishes to our friends in north carolina. good morning, america. hurricane florence slamming the east coast right now east coast right now pounding the coast with life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds. hitting 90 miles an hour. >> the emergency situation right now in new bern, north carolina. hundreds are trapped in homes, on roof n. cars. we're speaking with some of them live as rescue crews and the volunteer cajun navy race to save them. >> now fears growing of catastrophic flooding. up to 40 inches ofrain. a month's worth in just a few days. power already knock the out for hundreds of thousands. we're tracking the monster storm as it barrels ashore on our air. our team right there in the storm zone. a special edition of "good morning america" startno