category 2 hurricane skirts the coast of north carolina this morning. we will tell you where it's headed next. also, more buses carrying undocumented and unaccompanied children are scheduled to arrive in southern california just hours from now. how are people there planning to greet them this time? and late in the afternoon, before holiday weekend, new jersey governor chris christie and new york governor andrew cuomo release a report about how to fix the agency at the center of bridgegate. steve kornacki will be here to tell us what's in that report and what is not in that report. good afternoon to you. happy fourth of july.

i'm craig melvin. this is turning out to be an historic fourth of july in the early hours of this morning, the first named hurricane of the 2014 season, a category 2 storm named arthur, hit north carolina's outer banks. the national hurricane center says this is the earliest a hurricane has ever made landfall during the atlantic season. that storm knocked down trees, knocked out power to about 44,000 homes and businesses so far. they are also caused some flash flooding as well. at this hour, road crews are out on the highways up and down the barrier islands. they are assessing the damage. right now that storm is back out at sea as you can see. it's been downgraded to a category 1 hurricane as it moves north. it is threatening to ruin or at least change the holiday plans farthure up the atlantic coast. we want to turn now to the latest in north carolina. for that we go to nbc's sarah dallof in kill devil hills. she's been reporting on the advance.

and now the retreat of that storm all morning. what's the scene like right now, sarah? >> well, craig, we were sure happy to see hurricane arthur go. he wasn't wanted in the first place. now that he's gone away, we're actually seeing some sun in the skies picking through these clouds. some light wind. but absolutely nothing compared to the early hours of this morning when we were seeing 60 to 70 mile gusts of wind when the ocean was just churning and huge waves crashing on to the beach and the rain was sideways. well, right now as you can see, people are back on the beach. they are out with their dogs and their kites taking advantage of this wind. but swimmers, however, are not. lifeguards have been going up and down the beach putting up these flags reminding people right now that that rip current is just too dangerous. even if you are an experienced swimmer. meanwhile, like you said, emergency crews out on the barrier islands checking things out. the traffic cameras that they had up all night to keep them aware of the situation. lots of those become clouded by grit from the blowing sand. it made it difficult to assess

that situation. now that they are on the ground, they are able to identify those downed power lines, the branches blocking the roads, the flooding. overall, north carolina's governor says the damage is pretty minimal. he was very happy to report there have been no serious injuries or casualties reported so far today. and he really did credit the people of this island. the full-time residents and the approximately 250,000 visitors who are here for the holiday week for staying inside and heeding all of those warnings in order to stay safe. the stores sales were reflections of that here in this area. they saw people yesterday snapping up supplies. water, lanterns, batteries, things to get them through in case the power was out which, as you know is the case for about 44,000 homes right now. >> a lot of concerns always with storms like this. a lot of concerns about erosion. what can you tell us about the erosion there on the beach? any visible signs yet? >> yeah, let me actually show

you. it's a lot better than it was earlier today when we had about a three-foot drop off of erosion. you can still see some of that right here. but the tide is starting to sweep back in, starting to smooth that out, redeposit some of the sand. so it isn't quite as dramatic a drop. this morning when you came out it was a pretty clear cut three feet straight down of erosion. >> all right. sarah dallof there for us in north carolina on the outer banks there. thank you for the latest on the storm itself, where it is now, where it is headed. our meteorologist bill karins is standing by. so it looks like, bill, north carolina looks like they escaped it. >> category 2, yeah. >> but nova scotia -- >> they're going to get hid. cape cod is going to get brushed. i'm very impressed with north carolina. eastern north carolina getting nailed by a category 2 and this is all the damage we have to show you? that's fantastic. only 40,000 people without power? they'll have most of those on by the end of the day today if not by tomorrow. wind gusts were high.

it's not like it was a category 2 that didn't really produce winds that were of that nature. we saw numerous gusts about 80, 90, even 101-mile-per-hour wind gust in cape lookout. but again, things are well constructed there. if we had this storm making inlands in a lot of other areas of the coast we'd be talking about a lot of problems. eastern north carolina, it sticks out into the atlantic. you are used to these storms and you build to these storms. it's now cruise spog the atlantic at 24 miles per hour. it came off the coast of north carolina early this morning and now it's well off the coast. it's parallel pretty much to the maryland/delaware border and due south of long island at this time. this is the closest impact we'll see on the jersey shore where they're getting blown around with bands of rain and also long island who is getting pretty steady downpours and gusty winds. cape cod, you are next. as far as the forecast path, by 8:00 p.m. this evening, category 1, 85-mile-per-hour winds. due south of cape cod. that will be the closest approach to rhode island by about midnight.

that will be the closest approach to the islands and to cape cod itself. so the wind gusts, this damaging wind gust potential, tropical storm force winds, will be closest to cape cod. 8:00 p.m. this evening. as we take you through the night, winds will be exiting by about 5:00 a.m. i give you the all clear in eastern massachusetts. the beaches and the surf will still be very rough through saturday which is going to make it difficult because it will be sunny, beautiful, nice but you have to deal with those rough conditions and probably until sunday morning at the beach. as far as rainfall, the potential for flash flooding. four inches of rain likely in the boston area during the day today. a lot of heavy rain around providence. and my friends from bar harbor to maine could pick up a half a foot of rain. as far as the overall effects, this is kind of the boot bottom. heavy rain. beach threat continues with large waves right through saturday. it will give you the all clear on sunday. that's the tough one. the tough one is you are on

vacation. it's a beautiful weekend. it's a saturday. it's 80 degrees and you are trying to tell your kids not to go in the water. but you have to be safe. safety first. >> bill karins, thank you, sir. in many ways, north carolina appears to have been spared a storm that could have been far more devastating. but in other ways, it is being felt. tourism officials had expected 250,000 people to visit the outer banks this holiday weekend. joining me on the phone, mayor of kitty hawk, north carolina, gary perry. mayor perry, first of all, does it appear at this point that the storm kept some of those tourists away? >> not so much kept them away but perhaps chased them away due to the advisories and those sorts of things. we thank them for heeding those sorts of things. >> in terms of damage, what are we looking at right now there in kitty hawk? >> in kitty hawk, we fared very well. there's very minor damage. no true structural damage to

speak of. we had no coastal overwash that is always a concern for kitty hawk. the rain, we had some dry weather before the rain so the ground was not saturated. it soaked it up very nicely. when the winds came around the sound did come up to a degree but it was all just minor. so the police department had no calls during the event. the public works had no calls during the event. and the only thing that the fire department had was a few trees reported down. they were able to clear those very quickly. so we fared exceedingly well thanks to both the residents and taking care, putting their cars to high ground. doing all the things they needed to do. they cooperated very well. >> seems like those warnings paid off. >> yes. we can see things like that now. people understand that. and not only that, there was a hard lesson learned during irene. people remembered that very well and took heed to it.

>> we'll leave it there. mayor gary perry of kitty hawk, north carolina. thank you. >> you're welcome. >> even if you do not live in north carolina, this storm is perhaps a very good reminder that we are at the beginning of hurricane season. the very beginning of hurricane season. it's important for everyone to be ready for a storm if and when the time comes. for more on that, i'm joined by aton edwards, co-founder of the international preparedness network. good to see you, sir. so this one, again it looks like for all practical intents and purposes, we're going to be okay. but who is to say in terms of the next one how intense that might be. what do you need to be hurricane ready? >> well, you've got to stock your home with the essentials. the things that you need to get through an emergency for a protracted period. i would say a week. a lot of people say 72 hours. i don't think so. i don't think that that's a wise thing to do because you want to be able to extend that time. so one of the things you want to have is you want to make sure you have a lot of emergency water. simply because in some cases,

after power outages, water treatment facilities, they go down. and the water in your county or the town or city can be contaminated. so you want to have water on standby. have emergency food. you want to have food that, if possible, obviously it's got to be nonperishable. stuff that's in cans. if you can get food you don't have to cook like mres that you can just eat it right thoift bag. freeze dried food is great, too, but you need twurt do that and you have a freeze dried food you don't need to refrigerate it. you don't need to worry about it being in a refrigerator. put it aside, leave it. some of it lasts for 15 years so you don't have to worry about cycling it out. you also want to have certain tools. you want to have something called a go bag in the event you had to get out of your house. get a go bag that has all the essential items you need to survive outside offior home for about a week. companies like life gear that makes like a marvelous go bag.

you want to have emergency money. people forget that -- >> cash. >> you don't have any cash. your credit cards and everything else, they may not work because there's no power. you may not be able to go to an atm. have cash in small denominations. all your important papers packed away in water tight bags just in case there's flooding. these are some of the things that you need to do. medicines, if you have insulin and all kinds of different things that maybe need refrigeration. you have to plan for this before it happens. >> a lot of things a lot of folks don't think about until it's too late. >> i hope they don't look at this and say we dodged that bullet and it's going to be all right for the rest of the summer and let's not even worry about it. i think this was the warning. people should go out and they should start stocking up on their emergency supplies before the hurricane starts. and take the time to do it now. and then you don't have to rush and wipe the shelves off of everything later. >> what is this? >> this is just a mini bag. like a mini personal kit. one thing people talk about. they talk about the go bags. people don't talk about the

personal items that you need to carry with you at all times when a storm happens. like i'll give you an example. this is something very simple. here we have a headlamp. why a headlamp? it's like a little miner's lamp. in an emergency you want your hands free. and this will give you the ability to kind of like work and not worry about dropping it and, you know, it's a very important thing. it's also an l.e.d. light. and the incandescent, the old style lights don't burn as long. you want an l.e.d. light you. also need to have like a thing called -- let me show you something else. a lot of times people get caught up with batteries. here's a flash light that doesn't use batteries at all. it's a solar light. you can see it's pretty bright, right? leave that out in -- >> how expensive is something like that? >> that costs a few bucks. 8 bucks. in a real serious catastrophe or emergency or bad hurricane, you have one battery might cost you

$8. because people are going to gouge for prices. there's also some other stuff in here like there's a thing called a multitool that people can buy. >> swiss army knife? >> this particular one -- >> that is a swiss army knife on steroids? >> well, yeah. this one is an interesting one. i have on a tether. yeah, that's like it's got all kinds of little tools on it and everything. that's mine. that's one i actually use. if i use mine because i have a bicycle, i use that as emergency transportation. so you can see all of the different little items on that. there are companies like this. leatherman makes great multitools. this is something that people should have. you should also have a pen and paper because people rely on the electronics too much. and you can get a weather proof notepad and pen because having that, you have the ability to take down critical information because you need a list of all this -- >> everything in that little bag will run you about 30, $40? >> yeah, about that much. you don't have to spend a lot of

money to be safe. >> aton edwards, that was very informative. thanks for stopping by. ution this as a teachable moment. on the 238th birthday of america, it is expected to be another tense day in southern california over the question of who should and should not be allowed to live on these shores. we'll have a report on that later. 50 years after freedom summer, we'll travel to louisiana where the essence festival kicks off in new orleans to commemorate all that has happened to advance the civil rights in this country over the last half century. stay with us. this is msnbc. ing. can i get my actual credit report... like, the one the bank sees? [ male voice ] sheesh, i feel like i'm being interrogated over here. [ male voice ] she's onto us. dump her. [ pay phone rings ] hello? oh, man. that never gets old. no, it does not. [ female announcer ] not all credit report sites are equal. experian.com members get personalized help

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this is specialist from kandahar, afghanistan, wishing everyone from spokane, washington, a happy fourth of july. >> hello from kandahar, afghanistan. we're the 128th attachment from the utah army national guard. >> we miss our loved ones back home and just want to say -- >> happy independence day! >> just a few of our americans serving the country overseas on this independence day. sending their greetings on this holiday. it is going to be a huge day for some former u.s. soldiers who were sworn in as american citizens. that ceremony took place at the white house just a few minutes ago. we will have more from the white

house in just a few moments. first, though, we want to turn to the situation in southern california. this could be yet another tense day in the town of murrieta. that desert city expects more undocumented immigrants to be sent there today. nbc news' miguel almaguer has more now for us from murrieta. >> yes, we can! >> reporter: behind the protests, beyond the anger and outrage in communeities nick murrieta, these are the faces at the center of the fight. 90,000 undocumented immigrants from central america are expected to arrive this year alone in the u.s. at a bus depot in texas, most here are released from custody with just the clothes on their back and their small children by their side. digna carried her 2-year-old daughter here from el salvador. "i left in the bus, took a car, she says, crossed the river, walked for a while, then was caught by immigration."

in central america, these public service announcements warn making the treacherous trip to the u.s. is often a deadly one. but the message isn't working. children traveling alone across the border, up 92% from last year. this week, buses like the ones turned around in murrieta continue to drop off hundreds of immigrants across the southwest. >> a nation without borders is a nation without sovereignty. >> these are human beings. they deserve a chance at our freedom. >> reporter: in murrieta, that won't come without a fight. two sides. a nation decided over immigration. >> miguel almaguer there reporting from murrieta, california. president obama is weighing in on the immigration debate once again. he attended a naturalization ceremony at the white house this morning. more than two dozen current and retired members of the military and their spouses all became citizens on this fourth of july. people who chose to serve this country, even though they were

still immigrants. the president telling them that the nation's diversity is one of its greatest strengths. >> if we want to keep attracting the best and the brightest from beyond our shores, we're going to have to fix our immigration system, which is broken and pass common sense immigration reform. we shouldn't be making it harder for the best and the brightest to come here and create jobs here and grow our economy here. we should be making it easier. >> kristen welker is live at the white house on this independence day. kristen, what else did president obama have to say? >> well, his goal today, craig, was really to highlight the positive side of the immigration debate. so you heard him talking about the service, the sacrifice of those 25 service members who officially became citizens today. he also celebrated the contributions of celebrity chef jose andrace who hails from spain and became a u.s. citizen last year. this comes against the backdrop of president obama saying he's going to take unilateral action

on immigration reform saying that congress is not going to act. he says that house speaker john boehner indicated to him he has no plans to bring immigration reform to the floor. here's a little bit more of what president obama had to say today. take a listen. >> i'm going to keep doing everything i can do to keep making our immigration system smarter and more efficient. so hard working men and women, like all of you, have the opportunity to join the american family and to serve our great nation. >> now it's not clear what specific actions president obama intends to take, but we anticipate that he is going to announce something, possibly by the end of this summer. republicans pushing back saying that he doesn't have the authority to take broad unilateral action but immigration reform advocates are urging him to do something substantial to allow more people to stay in this country. possibly to allow the parents of those d.r.e.a.m. act children in

this country. those are some of the ideas president obama is considering. meanwhile, craig, this day continues here at the white house. later on today, president obama is going to host more than 1,000 service members and their families here at the white house for a barbecue, fireworks. they'll also have entertainment by pit bull. so very busy day here. busy day focusing again on immigration reform and a unique service here, naturalization service, for u.s. service members. that's only happened one other time during president obama's time in office. >> and i understand there's also another special celebration expected at the people's house this afternoon as well, no? >> oh, there is another big celebration. that's for sure, craig. that is for malia obama. she turns 16 today. so hard to believe she was just 10 years old when she first entered the white house. craig, you know that the administration's always very mum. they don't like to talk about the girls and their plans. but her parents are clearly

excited about this birthday. the first lady told jimmy fallon that she would be hitting the road just like other 16-year-olds. she told everyone in d.c. to watch out. she said malia obama will be on the roads. so her parents looking forward to this. her father talked about it earlier this week. he said his daughter turns 16 on the 4th of july. so she celebrates her birthday along with the rest of the nation. certainly a big milestone birthday for the first daughter. >> indeed it is. kristen welker, thank you. we got word a short time ago that at least one prominent lawmaker is spending his fourth of july visiting u.s. troops stationed in afghanistan. senator john mccain tweeting out this picture in the last hour. celebrating the fourth of july with the arizona national guard in afghanistan. this point, no word yet on whether there are other members of congress who are traveling with senator mccain. much more ahead on hurricane arthur. again, right now a category 1 hurricane. where it has been, where it's

going. these are some aerial pictured taken by the u.s. coast guard this morning showing some of the flooding impacting the barrier islands over the north carolina coast. also, remember bridgegate? there's a new report out on how to fix the agency at the center of the lane closures. it was released very quietly late yesterday. msnbc's steve kornacki is here on a holiday to tell us what is in that report and what is not in that report. next. because we're streaming the movie that you love. well, how do i win? because we ordered that weird thing that you love from the pizza place. how do you win, dad? because i used the citi thankyou card and got two times the points on alllllll of this. well, and spending time with you guys of course. that was a better answer. the citi thankyou preferred card. earn two times the thankyou points on entertainment and dining out all with no annual fee. to apply, go to citi.com/thankyoucards.

governor pat mccrory there saying north carolina officials hope to have the bridge to hatteras island and the two-lane highway open by late tomorrow. they'll have it open by late tomorrow despite the damage that's been caused by hurricane arthur. he said the problems on north carolina highway 12 include some buckling of pavement, some standing sand, standing water as well. there have also been reports of power outages there in the tar

heel state. up to 44,000 homes and businesses an the barrier islands and elsewhere in the carolinas. we'll continue to bring you more on the storm as it churns its way up the atlantic coast. expected to hit nova scotia pretty hard early, early tomorrow morning. right now, though, we want to turn to bridgegate. it has been six months now since the scandal itself became headline news. and just before the fourth of july holiday, appointees of new jersey governor chris christie and new york governor andrew cuomo have released a report outlining the ways the agency at the center of this scandal should be reformed. it was the employees of the port authority of new york and new jersey who carried out those lane closures. multiple investigations have been launched into the agency's conduct. and in a rare joint release, a rather small five-page document. the panel revealed their plans to change the way that the agency worked. it came out yesterday. here to tell us more about the report and why the governors chose to release it, right now,

msnbc's steve kornacki. host of the weekend political weekend show "up." why release a report like this on the day before the fourth of july. >> because you don't want everybody talking about it. you don't want this to be the headline that voters are seeing, that people are seeing. there's also not much in the report. this is something it was sort of -- they needed to do something. they felt from a pr standpoint they needed to put -- have this study commissioned. this is not sort of the final report. they are saying there's going to be more coming down the line. but there really isn't anything in here. it's not a topic chris christie ever wants to be talking about, the bridge. it's not a topic that andrew cuomo wants to be talking about. he's escaped a lot of scrutiny on this and wants to keep it that way. >> what was in the report? >> really not much. a lot of vague stuff about stuff that they are going to look into over the next few months. there's, i think, the main thing is the idea that they actually copy and pasted the mission of the port authority. there is no founding mission of the port authority into this.

let's get back to what this mission is. the real difficult questions about, okay, fine, make broad statements about what the port authority is or should be and what it's become. how do you change this massive hugely sort of cash rich bistate agency and change the culture in a place like that? it doesn't get into that at all. >> what's the latest on the investigation? >> which investigation? >> yeah, that's true. >> the manhattan district attorney is looking into questions of money that was originally earmarked for another tunnel under the hudson river. how the christie administration took that money and paid for a road project with it. there's the u.s. attorney apparently has two separate grand juries convened. there's a question of the lane closures themselves. that seems to be a part of it. also a question of, part of this land deal that involves sampson, the chairman of the port authority. the big mystery here is the real ball game is the u.s. attorney's office. and this u.s. attorney's office is very hard to know what's going on. very opaque.

>> still no timetable on when we can expect something? >> right. >> big show this weekend. >> yes. yes. >> huge show. >> shockingly huge. >> you've got bob costas for an hour. >> the fifth of july. i'm pretty sure no one is pulling a prank on us. i think the real bob costas will be live in our studio tomorrow morning for the full hour. bob costas. a one on one interview with him. then we're going to reunite, old nfl fans here remember the old nfl live, bob costas and frank deford. we're reuniting them on our show. we'll have the ultimate sports roundtable. it's the fourth of july. it's americana. great american tradition. we'll play our hit game show, an americana edition and costas will be on that as well. >> i'd put my money on costas. who is the third contestant? >> mike pesca. >> frequent "up" guest. >> we have to get you on one of these weekends. >> last time i was on it didn't go well, although -- >> it's gone worse for others.

>> i've seen it. i did feel better about myself. >> up with steve kornacki" every weekend, 8:00 eastern. that's a beautiful head shot, sir. >> you are a very nice man. this is a day of huge celebrations across the country. a chance to mark the birth of this republic. many of them are planning to go on as scheduled. should the weather cooperate. last night's massive thunderstorms, though, ahead of hurricane arthur, did keep spectators from being able to watch rehearsals for the capitol fourth event in our nation's capital. but when the d.c. extravaganza kicks off tonight if it kicks off tonight it will feature a star-studded lineup. in addition to kermit and miss piggy, patti labelle, jordin sparks and other muppets as well. i am excited to see the muppets. and that's a heck of a show as well if you can catch it on pbs. more on the holiday and today's big storm straight ahead. this is msnbc. of the review.

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hurricane arthur which has been downgraded to a category 1 storm but it's still moving its way up the eastern seaboard. the coast guard is set to do a briefing just a few moments from now. we're keeping our eye on that. the storm battered the southern end of the outer banks. the first hurricane of the 2014 atlantic season, the first to ever make landfall on the fourth of july. and also, the first storm to make landfall, period, in two years. to tell us a little more about where that storm has been and where it's going now we turn to the weather channel's greg postell. how have things changed over the past few hours? >> they've gotten a lot better. they're going to start to improve along the jersey shore even though it's raining right now. the latest advisory, this is a 90-mile-per-hour category 1 storm moving northeast very quickly at 24 miles per hour. so it should be leaving the scene fairly quickly all the way

from new york down through atlantic city, even though there's rain showers right now. and up in southern new england, conditions are going to gradually get worse, i think, as some of the outer effects of arthur begin to work their way in. rain showers and even thunderstorms right now across the region. this is what arthur looks like on the satellite picture moving rapidly toward the northeast. weakening as it does. here's why it's moving so quickly. we've got a jet stream plowing in from the west that's going to be pushing arthur out to sea giving it a quick shove. it shouldn't be long, i don't think, before conditions even rapidly improve along the jersey coast in new york and long island. and southern new england, they may get scraped by tropical storm force gusts and heavy rain. even by tomorrow afternoon, boston, even eastern cape cod, the weather conditions should dramatically improve with arthur moving rapidly away into the canadian maritimes. >> dr. greg postel, thank you, sir. hurricane arthur continues its move north, it is unleashing

some nasty rain as you just heard from greg. unleashing nasty rain. maine going to get hit especially hard. they may see almost a half foot of rain. it's changing the plans of many communities. fireworks displays in new jersey and maine were postponed until later in the weekend. but the winds have moved off the coast. new england, likely to get soaked throughout the day. boston pops held their famous fourth of july concert last night to beat the storm. and by tomorrow, arthur will be international. a tropical storm warning has been issued for nova scotia for early tomorrow. forecasters up and down the atlantic coast are warning of high surf and dangerous rip currents along many of this coast's eastern regional areas. nbc's ron allen monitoring the situation on new york's long island in the town of long beach. a community that was hit especially hard by hurricane sandy back in 2012. and, ron, it looks like it's --

looks like it's starting to come down or continues to come down there pretty well. >> indeed, craig. for the past hour, we've been getting the steady rain we've heard was going to come all day. and we think it's going to last for a couple of hours as the storm gets closer to this part of the country. perhaps you can see over there just behind me there's a lifeguard stand, and they are pretty thech only guys here on the beach at the moment. earlier today there were some surfers out enjoying the waves but even that has stopped. a couple people walking along with umbrellas. at this point if you look around, it's pretty much a washout. certainly not a beach day here. and there are some people on the boardwalk even. once the rain started coming and falling steadily, everybody has decided to try and do something else. there are still flood watches in effect throughout this area because we're expecting a lot of rain to fall in a short period of time. this will be the third day that has happened. on wednesday and thursday, there were powerful thunderstorms, torrential rains falling and

short periods of time making things very wet and the ground more difficult to absorb more rain in this area. so that's a concern. you mentioned rip currents. we've got them out here. you can't see that. we're talking to the life guards earlier. they say this part of the beach, especially, there's a lot of rip currents because of the unevenness of the sand bar underneath. that causes these canal-like funnels where the water comes in and then rushes back out to sea and that's what creates this riptide, rip current that pulls people out unknowingly. be very careful. they'll keep the beach open here as long as possible. they are watching this to see if they need to close it. but at this point there's nobody out in the water. so the life guards will stay on duty. they'll be here until about 4:00 or 5:00. we're hoping this weather blows over in the next few hours. just looking at the clouds, i'm no weatherman but seems to have settled in here for a good moment and we're getting socked by pretty steady rain. it's not falling hard but it's

steady. at this point, everybody is taking cover inside. >> ron, really quickly here, what's the word on erosion there? any time there's a storm like this, everyone is concerned about beach erosion. is it too early to tell or can you give us some indication already? >> at this point, craig, we're just getting up to high tide at about 1:00 in the afternoon. we're just getting the measure of the waves coming in. at this point, doesn't seem to be anything obvious. but they are concerned about that here because this is where hurricane sandy just wiped out this entire area. so they've made barriers. we're not expecting anything like that this time around. certainly monitoring the situation very closely up and down the coast. >> that boardwalk just opened completely a few months ago as i understand it. ron allen for us there on long beach. ron, thank you. as we've been reporting so far, arthur, thankfully, left no casualties, no serious injuries. minimal damage so far in its path. north carolina's governor telling us a short time ago that there are about 44,000 homes and businesses without power right

now. joining me now, the very latest on those outages in north carolina, lee freedman, spokesperson for duke energy. lee, i understand you just got back from a helicopter trip surveying some of the damage. what did you see? >> you know, we really didn't see too much damage on the lines. that's what we were up in the helicopter for. but i've been driving around all day, too, and we were assessing damage. as for a lot of my teammates here. and right now we have about 6,000 people without power. and that's down from a high of 22,000 last night. >> wow. >> and we expect most of those people to be with -- to have their service restored by today. some people may have to wait until tomorrow. >> it sounds like you've got them back online pretty quickly there. >> if you were down here on the coast, i'm here in atlantic beach, you would think it's business as usual. aside from a few trees down, a few roof shingles on the ground, it's a beautiful day. it's 90 degrees, sunny. ideal conditions for getting -- for having our crews restore power. >> sounds like you are

confirming what we've been hearing over the past hour or two at least that by and large, we really dodged a bullet here. >> yes. we dodged a bullet. and part of that was the weather and part of it was because the power was -- in recent years we've made our grid more -- we've invested a lot of money in it. it's paid off. if you drive around here if you were here with me today, you'd see people fishing off piers, boating, people in the water and then swimming, of course, on the beaches. like i said, it's business as usual here in north carolina. >> the 6,000 homes and businesses that still don't have power. where are they primarily? >> we are hardest hit in morehead city. scattered outages around there. and our crews, we have about 800 workers here in the carolinas that are working here at the coast. and they are doing everything from replacing poles to restringing power lines to rechecking homes to the grid.

we're working as fast as we can, as safe as we doon get these people back on the grid. we know that people value electricity, especially holiday weekends like this. >> amen to that, brother. lee freedman, duke energy. lee, thank you. >> thank you. as we mentioned, july 4th came a little early this year in boston. more on what it looked like coming up. plus -- we'll go live to new orleans where the 20th annual essence festival has kicked off. and it kicked off with quite a show last night. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, like me,

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right after the fireworks ended, police ordered an evacuation of the area ahead of the storm. right now as you can see there, that storm arthur making its way up the eastern seaboard. it's a category 1 storm. it was downgraded about three hours ago from a cat 2. we want to turn to a community that is no stranger to the effects of a massive storm. but today the city of new orleans where the weather is clear, where it is warm and sunny, the agenda, all about entertainment and empowerment and, oh, yeah, prince. this weekend the 20th essence festival is under way in the big easy. that anniversary coincides with the 50th anniversary of freedom summer. and all-star lineup is on tap for a full weekend of seminars, soirees and sounds. in addition to prince performing tonight, there's janelle monet, erica badu and the grio.com's chris witherspoon is in the middle of it all.

a lot more folks behind you than there were a few hours ago when we checked in with you for the first time. >> definitely, craig. the scene is really building. a lot of folks are here. the energy is through the roof. a little side note about prince. i got this cover of the "new orleans advocate." prince is asking in his headline, "purple rain" in celebration of the 20th anniversary, prince requested everyone wear purple to tonight's concert #purple essence. i'm looking forward to prince being there. >> a lot of purple. i would imagine that's going to be the highlight of the essence festival. who performed last night? i heard there was quite the show last night as well. >> the big headliner last night was naz. tonight janelle monet, prince. acts like mary j. blige, jill scott. something for everybody. and the empowerment sessions happening right now, i got to walk around the convention center. and it is already crowded. it's not even noon here yet in new orleans. already crowded. about 20 stages. a lot of big sponsors like ford,

walmart, verizon are here and a lot of celebrities are here doing meet and greets with different people that watch their shows. >> how many folks are they expecting there in new orleans at the festival this year? >> so last year they had about 120,0 120,000. this year they're expecting about 150, even more than that. i spoke to an essence organizer and big numbers should come out of this festival. quite the anniversary. you have to go big. >> it's not just about the music, not just about the parties this year. what are you hearing about how they plan to mark 50 years since freedom summer? >> you know, it really is about the 20th anniversary of this festival being a pinnacle for this magazine. the festival started about 25 -- 20 years ago marxing the 25th anniversary of the magazine. the magazine stands for so much. civil rights issues. i was talking to my mom on the

phone. before 1970 there was no magazine for black women to look at and see themselves and aspire to bigger visions. this magazine stands for a greater purpose in this festival and its 20th anniversary acknowledges that purpose. >> i know it's also about empowerment. steve harvey, one of the panelists is going to be talking about act like a success. who else is down there, what else are they talking about? >> you might see melissa harris perry. she'll be moderating a panel with alicia keys trying to empower women to end aids. terry mcmillan. steve harvey. a lot of people you read in the magazine come to life on these stages. people that are fans of this magazine and these artists and celebrities to come out and engage in discussions around topics important to the community. >> leave it there. the grio's chris witherspoon in new orleans at the 20th annual essence festival. it continues through sunday. if you happen to find yourself

in the big easy, stop by the convention center. check it out. say hi to some msnbc friends as well. al sharpton is there. julia reed, tamron hall. july 3rd through july 6th. this is an msnbc growing hope event. new details in the case of that georgia father whose young son died in a hot car. what investigators say he now talked about with family members after the boy's death. you're watching msnbc.

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other stories we're following on this independence day. investigators say the georgia father whose young son died after being left in a sweltering hot suv talked to family members about how to cash in the boy's life insurance. justin ross harris had two policies an his 22-month-old son cooper. he is now charged with first degree murder.

harris says that he forgot to take his son to day care when he left him in that vehicle. police say it was not an accident. not wind nor water but fire is forcing one southern california town to postpone its fourth of july celebration. the wildfire has already destroyed two homes in the town of julian. that's in san diego county. it is now threatening hundreds of other homes as well. and it is just one of several wildfires burning right now in southern california. and an upet? the nathan's famous fourth of july hot dog eating contest. there she is. miki sudo won the world title. she took down sonya "the black widow" thomas. this is a big deal in the world of competitive eating. she devoured 34 dogs and buns in ten minutes. we do not know at this point whether she threw up right after but she looks like she's holding her own there.

we've got our eye on that. the outer banks of north carolina hit by a category 2 hurricane this morning. a major storm with sustained winds of 100 miles per hour. the early assessment is things could have been far, far worse. this is some video that we just got in from the ton of nags head, north carolina. there are some trees down as you just saw there. some roof damage as well. the effects of flooding from a storm surge. but again at this point, no major injuries to speak of. no deaths. just minor damage at this point. the outer banks appears to have escaped the very worst of a major storm. first major storm this hurricane season. it has disrupted a lot of holiday plans, though. threatens to disrupt even more of them as it continues to churn its way up the eastern seaboard. that is going to do it for me on this fourth of july. francis rivera will pick up msnbc's coverage right after this. it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

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happy fourth of july. i'm francis rivera. it's a very busy independence day. just moments ago, president obama hosted a naturalization ceremony for some of the country's newest citizens. overseas, tensions in israel escalate with troops mobilizing around the gaza strip. and all eyes are on arthur, the first hurricane of the season. right now, we are awaiting a news conference from the coast guard in wilmington, north carolina. we'll go there live once it happens for the latest on hurricane arthur which has now been downgraded to a category 1 storm. arthur made landfall last night near the southern end of north carolina's outer banks where it knocked down trees causing flash flooding and shut down power for up to 44,000 people. but this morning, as the storm moves on from the carolina coast, north carolina governor pat mccrory had some good news about the aftermath of this storm. >> this has been a very good day. there have been no casualties or serious injuries reported, and

that was our number one goal. things look quite good throughout the coast of north carolina. there's been minimal damage, and right now we have people from throughout the world beginning again to enjoy north carolina beaches. >> the fourth of july may be less enjoyable, though, for those in the northeast who will feel arthur's effects as the storm makes its way up the east coast. it's expected to pass east of cape cod with dangerous rip currents remaining. now i want to go to nbc meteorologist bill karins who has been tracking this storm for us with the latest. >> this hurricane wind in north carolina is a category 2. and tell you what. we've seen a lot of the damage so far. and it doesn't look that bad for a category 2. looks like we're really fortunate. the outer banks, they are built better than other areas. they are used to storms like this. and they really, really did well. as far as the storm goes, currently, racing away from virginia and north carolina. it's going to be a beautiful