>> good saturday morning to all of you. it is no longer hurricane florence but in some places the worst is yet to come. widespread flooding and sweeping rain still going. downed trees leading destruction across north carolina. we have the latest on the causalities. florence pivoting west to the east and back to the north.

a long way to go. today's other big headline, a bombshell plea. the trump campaign former manager cuts a deal and now he must tell all to robert mueller including what happened at that trump tower meeting. details next here on msnbc live. >> an hour before debreak in ay the carolinas. downgraded from hurricane strength but causing catastrophic flooding over north and south carolina. packing winds of over 60 miles per hour and expected to drop between 20 and 40 inches of rain in coastal areas and those two states. downed trees and power lines creating dangerous conditions out there while first responders continue to rescue hundreds of people trapped in flooded areas. >> a big bang, the roof went and

all the ceiling fell down. >> i've never been so terrified in my entire life. it was horrifying. >> five deaths have been reported including a mother and her infant child killed when a tree fell on this home there in wilmington. our coverage includes for you derek, mariana is in oak island, north carolina and then here in studio, shauna with me. let's go first to you derek. new bern, where first responders carried out hundreds of water rescues. what's the latest that you're able to see? >> first the good news. it had about a ten foot storm surge come up it the other day and it's now back in it's banks where it belongs. the area i'm standing would have been waste deep in water.

so the river receded. several blocks inland from here. other parts around the city were flooded by the river and by about two feet of rain that we got over the last day and a half. rescues continuing. workers will be back out at first light this morning trying to get to some of the folks that could not or would not leave their homes earlier and now are in need of a little bit of assistance to get out depending on where they are. 30,000 people in this town. 21,000 of us lost power over the last few days. 7,000 outages remain including here along the waterfront and downtown of this community. they'll begin the clean up

process today and hopefully finish the process. alex this storm is over for now for this community but the same river that caused a problem with storm surge is likely to see a whole bunch of extra water coming back down as this storm moves inland. so we might get another round of a little bit of flooding. >> a couple of questions there. was this an area calling for mandatory evacuations? it has to be considered for some people, elderly, it's hard for them to leave. there's always those with financial considerations and they're just rolling the dice trying to get the lesser of two evils i guess. how is it the first responders know where to go? is there a registry when people say i'm going to stay? >> this was an area under mandatory he vak dwevacuation.

but they don't have a lot of teeth. it's not as if they have the time or energy before the storms to yank people out of their homes and force them out of here and they're not going to lock them up afterwards. as to how they found folks, some is welfare checks. i haven't heard from my ant or grandma but there's also a very thorough effort put in by the national guard and local officials going door to door, knocking on the front door but not just leaving it there. we see them go around the back of houses. knock on back doors, peak in windows, making sure that people that couldn't leave din do so because they were bed bond woun injured or couldn't get out in time. >> you have to love those first responders. last question to you, i saw you in that nearly wasist deep wate.

there's tides forthcoming, will that effect the river? >> i think we're on the good side of that. i don't anticipate another major push into these communities. to the degree we're worried about this river still it's going to be as this storm moves inland and continues to fill up. this has been one of the wettest summers in a long time. there's nowhere for that water to go. if florence continues to just pound the inland parts of the state with more rain. >> we'll be checking back in with you again. and it can be heard over the wind gusts. looks like things are a little bit better but it's still windy. >> it is still windy and i just

spoke to the police department there is still a mandatory 24 hour curfew in place. and we're still going to get pounded and behind me, and especially after the storm has gone, you and i have covered our share of storms to know that it is when people start wondering about thinking, you know, florence has come and gone that you can have some trees fall on vehicles and fall on homes and fall on those people and they do not want to see anybody outside of their homes. everybody should be hunkered down until sunday, as early as monday, and with these islands you also have the fact that they were under mandatory evacuation orders. so both bridges going in and out of oak island closed. especially of concern for residents that left their homes

and want to try to get back in but they said that situation isn't going to change until sunday or monday at the earliest as well. unlike what garrett was explaining in new bern, here residents didn't lose power because luckily the power lines are underground on this island and the police department telling me they had no reports of injuries but the sun isn't even out today. we're expecting more rain. this island has the cape fear river to the east. the ocean to the south. and it has the waterway to the north about 100 yards from where i'm standing now so it could still potentially be vulnerable, especially as it continues to rain. >> given the name you emphasized being oak island and the trees, can you give a guestimate as to how many trees have fallen down? some of them are huge. >> they are very big. we spoke to a neighbor, kathie, about five houses from where i'm standing now. it was a huge tree that luckily

didn't fall on top of her house but did fall on her front porch and see how the winds and the trees keep swaying behind me. we're going to continue to see that throughout the day and see them on the small roads. these are small neighborhoods where it's going to get hard to move around their cars and you have these patrol cars making sure that people are still hunkered down. >> it will be hard for them to get back to their homes. we'll see you again at light of day. thank you so much. here in studio, shauna is tracking the storm for us. i know it's a tropical storm and no longer a hurricane but that's something of a misnomer because it's still dangerous out there. >> exactly. lighter wind out there. that's in terms of the category of the storm. we still have a lot of rain moving in with the heavy rain bands. northern carolina is getting a lot of the rain bands. up to inches per hour which will

create additional flooding to that storm surge they got on shore and watching that move on shore, we'll push more of that rain inland to give you coastal flooding and also flooding for the inland location. areas like charlotte, that's one location quite so far in this whole period of time. we'll be seeing the rain pick up as the storm moves toward the northwest. then tonight we'll be seeing things change. the rain gets pushed up to the north. sunday florence starts to weaken but continues to drop heavier rain. there's already a lot of saturation on the ground so there's nowhere for the water to go. it needs to recede and it's not going to get enough time. look at what happens into sunday night. it makes it's way up north. still looking at the remnants of the rain. this is going to be a heavy rain maker from now and we did expect this to happen and the rain totals will be adding up. moth morehead city. trenton, 18.2 inches.

additional rain fall totals from 7 to 15 feet in some spots. in total, 30 to 40 inches for this whole system. that's a ton of rain still to fall here through tuesday and we'll be following this but this has been a deadly rain maker. it's been large in size and even though it's downgraded in terms of the wind still a problem because the flooding is the number one thing that can be deadly out there. >> yeah. part of the problem is, i know it's been described as at times this storm has moved no more quickly than a human being can walk. like 3 miles per hour. so it just keeps raining and raining and it doesn't move. >> absolutely. you have a good point there. if you think about the rain staying in one place, it keeps continuing to fall in the same area and that's why we're finding a lot of these areas getting a lot of rain at once including the northern carolina states or areas because it's been falling in the same area. it's going to continue to do this for the whole weekend.

we'll be back with you shortly. so as florence crawls, literally crawls toward south carolina, let's right now head to myrtle beach and speak with the mayor of that city joining me now on the phone. madam mayor, what kind of night has it been like for you? >> it was a little bit more peaceful than it has been. still tropical storm conditions, a lot of rain but we're going to have to wait that out for a couple of more days with the rain. >> what about power outages? >> we still have a little over 8,000 homes without power. and that may continue. i would love to say that it won't but with the rain and the ground saturation that we have right now we don't know. >> how about storm surge? i know you experienced at least one if not two high tides.

>> our crews have not been able to be out yet. and they got out a little bit yesterday. our police department was looking around and not major damage and really give us the most. >> did that happen? could it still happen? >> well it hasn't happened yet because the rivers have not crested. and we do have five major rivers that surround and they're cresting in the next three to five days. and it's an immediate threat to us because all the major roads

that come in here will be effected by that and we don't have an interstate to help people get in and out. so we are buckling down for that. we know that it is a real threat. we're taking it very seriously and making all of the precautions as much as possible. >> you put a curfew in place. was that necessary? has it been helpful? >> people who have evacuated and unfortunately in events such as this, we have some who take advantage of that. and we need to protect those places. and it's dangerous. it does help give that extra layer of connection.

>> how much are you relying on assistance to the national guard troops? >> they have not been braug into myrtle beach yet that i know of. they are staged and ready for where ever they're needed throughout the entire county and state. but we will not really know what's needed until we get the assessments done today and what we want to do because myrtle beach, we were so blessed not to get hit harder by this storm that our neighbors to the west of us and inland areas, we want to be here to help them. that's what this is about. i was on the phone last night with some other mayors in our area and it's just about team work at this point. >> overall, how much do you think people listen to the evacuation warnings? >> i think we had a great success with the evacuation.

i think now people are probably asking themselves why did i evacuate and i really hope that that is not the message that comes from this because evacuation from this storm was critical. florence was a ferocious storm. it was huge. it is still taking place. and you just never know what these things are going to do. so it just isn't worth the risk and it could have been so much worse, and thank god that it wasn't, but people needed to evacuate because the dangers were still there with it and you just can't anticipate what those things are going to be. >> absolutely. you made the point that you have the five major rivers surrounding you and you're not sure what's going to happen in terms of cresting with those. so mayor of myrtle beach, best of luck to you. thank you for getting up early and speaking with us although i suspect you didn't have a very

sleep filled night nonetheless. thank you and we'll keep watching things for you there in myrtle beach. coming up next, paul manafort pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate with robert mueller. so what does that mean for the president? i'm ken jacobus, i'm the owner of good start packaging. we distribute environmentally-friendly packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. that's right, $36,000.

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campaign chair paul manafort pleading guilty to federal crimes and now agreeing to cooperate with the investigation. kristen welker has the story. >> after first fighting criminal charges, paul manafort is now cooperate with special counsel robert mu robert mueller. the plea agreement says he must cooperate in any and all matters. >> it's a tough day for mr. manafort but he has accepted responsibility and he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe. >> in court mr. manafort told a judge i plead guilty. the charges conspiracy against the united states and conspiracy to obstruct justice. in a statement sarah sanders said this had nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign. it's totally unrelated. his financial crimes stretch from 2006 to 2017 even while he was working for the trump

campaign and he failed to register as a foreign lobbyist. he pushed false stories for his client and pro-russian president of ukraine. he floated a story about an antisemetic crimes. >> if anyone were to know whether or not donald trump was involved in anyway in the 2016 election one would think his campaign manager would be the one to know that. >> mueller will zero in on questions about the 2016 tower meeting between donald trump jr. and a kremlin linked attorney that he attended. he consistently down played it on the campaign. more recently questions have mounted about whether the

president would pardon him? >> are you considering pardoning paul manafort. >> i have great respect for what he has done. >> paul manafort touches so many circumstantial pieces of evidence that have been hanging over this investigation. if he is now the chief dot connector, my guess is that is not good news for the president. >> manafort is the latest in a string of people linked to mr. trump who pleaded guilty and are now cooperating with the special counsel and now we're learning he's already spoken with mueller's team. >> thank you from the white house. joining me now in the studio, danny, good morning to you, my friend. early here, just past 6:00 a.m. these documents filed in the special counsel it's clear that they already talked. he talked to mueller. but apparently he has pled guilty to only 2 of 7 counts. interpret that. what does that mean? >> first, for us to get to the

plea agreement that we saw on friday, manafort had to do what we call a proffer. his attorneys had to approach the special counsels team and show them that manafort had information that was worth it to them to enter into a plea agreement. not just a plea agreement but a cooperating witness agreement or cooperation agreement so that manafort would provide information and the government would agree to allow him to plead to lesser charges. and they are significantly lesser. the conspiracy to money launder had a statutory maximum of 20 years. he pleaded to conspiracy statutory maximum of five years. that will give you an idea of the deal he's getting under this agreement. >> he has to have offered up something more than what mueller already had, right? >> even more than that. he had to offer something that was airtight because the government attorneys are very stingy when it comes to giving out these agreements. they like sure things and they had -- manafort had to give them

something that they hadn't heard about before. that they couldn't otherwise prove or establish at this point in time. and we are well along in the process. one could imagine manafort approaching them and the government saying yeah, we would have cared about that a year ago. now we already know it. we got it from a, b, c and d. these other folks that pleaded guilty and are cooperating. you no longer have information that is of value to us. that means there was still information that the special counsel felt was very helpful to them to allow them to plaed and get a good idea. >> how much of this has to do with the 2016 meeting at trump tower that paul manafort attended? >> it must. a good theory of the mueller team's approach is that to get to that point, they had to find all of these other pressure points on manafort. all of his financial crimes to get him to cooperate.

now he's cooperating and he's apparently going to provide information and that is the most direct tie to russia. in that mysterious meeting with trump tower and trump jr. and a couple of folks. >> does this then mean that this information must be pertinent to the president? do you know that for sure? >> we don for sure. not necessarily. there's a lot of reasonable inferences to be drawn. in fact, ban nonsaid almost explicitly that in fire in fury that the chance that they didn't walk him up to meet dad was zero. so there is a chance that donald trump is part of that and we really don't know and i hate saying that but that's a testament to the mueller team's

silence. we don't know. it might vofl other folks we can't imagine yet. a lot of times there's been an inindictment and we have been left saying who is that anyway? so we can't anticipate what the team is doing but i can tell you for sure that if manafort got this deal on tuesday or wednesday when he approached the special counsel or his team did, that he had something that was magical enough that the government, who is incredible with it's deals entered into this plea agreement and this cooperation agreement. >> okay. you anticipated by next question. well, in some places the worst may be yet to come. why in just a moment.

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daybreak soon in the carolinas where dramatic and life saving acts are underway happening by the hour. new video of a wheelchair rescue along the carolina river. florence is causing catastrophic flooding in north and south carolina. it's been downgraded from hurricane strength but up to 40 inches of rain still expected in the coastal areas. >> that's as fast as i can walk and you can see how slow this storm is moving. it will continue to pound a lot of neighborhoods and communities in the carolinas as it slowly progresses out to the west. right now we're looking at the winds. here's the strongest winds. we had some of them anywhere between 40 and 50 miles per hour when we saw the downgraded storm

from that hurricane to the tropical system. now we're seeing some 33 miles per hour winds and that's still strong enough to knock over trees, down power lines and cause some trouble out there but that's not going to be the main concern. we continue to watch that flooding because not only did we get the storm surge which we expected but we're still running that chance from north carolina down through south carolina, 3 to 5 feet expected with high tide coming in around the lunchtime hour today so that's going to be a concern around 12:30 for areas north of cape lookout right along the beach area at 12:37 and south of that at 1:20 near myrtle beach. that sea water coming in to shore. that's on top of what's falling down already. the fresh water from the clouds. that rain continuing to fall in the same spots as the slow moving storm continues to progress. you can see that will cause serious flooding for a lot of the rivers and tribeutaries. also the cape fear river looking

at the minor flooding stages here. so we'll watch that into early tuesday as the storm continues to make its way up to the northwest and take a turn to bring that mugginess and saturation up this way into new york city. a lot of that rain still falling. we're tracking all of it and it's a big storm as well. not only slow moving. it's looking to be one of the storms for the century and we'll tracking the totals for you. >> we'll talk about florence for some time to come. including later on this morning. catastrophic flooding for the carolinas. coming up next the story of one city bracing for the worst.

>> new details on water rescues as tropical storm florence stalls over north carolina. they're responding to the city of new bern.

they rescued 385 people there. joining me now is tammie. let's get the latest from there and what it looks like. i know dawn is on approach but looks like at least there's not a ton of water that you're standing in. that has to be good. >> yeah. hey, alex. it really looks like myrtle beach dodged a bullet. we spoke with police a few minutes ago and they said they have had no major damage in town. we have been driving around all morning. this was the extent of what we could find for damage. police also said they had no calls for rescue. you can see the power is still on where we are. about 160,000 people in south carolina have lost power. they still do have a curfew in place. but not a 24 hour curfew. it's from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. and that curfew will be coming up soon. now the rain is going to continue through the day even though the storm has passed. one major concern they do have in this area is the three major

rivers in this county will crest in the next 3 to 7 days. we spoke with the mayor and you have spoken with her also. her concern is that if the rivers do crest they will cause catastrophic flooding, possibly washing out the main road to get in and out of myrtle beach and as you probably know, the stores here, they were depleted before the storm of all supplies and also gasoline. so their concern is that they won't be able to get supplies into myrtle beach and also that the people that did evacuate which is about 60% of the county also won't be able to return to their homes. >> that's going to be a lot of downed trees. not necessarily in the commercial district there. but what is the major concern? the power outages and potential flooding from those rivers, right? that's like the 1-2 punch? >> yeah, that's definitely the 1-2 punch and she says that if these roads do flood, i mean, it could be very, very disastrous

for this town because they could be cutoff essentially for possibly 10 to 12 days so the people that are here, they obviously will need supplies to get themselves through the next 10 to 12 days if they're not able to get fuel trucks and food trucks into the town. that could be a major problem. >> you set me up perfectly for my next guest. thanks for that. joining me on the phone is an emergency response specialist there and he is stationed in raleigh, north carolina. good morning to you. you heard some of the things that tammie was just saying there. talk about the challenges that you all have to getting everything that people need. i know particularly medical supplies. that has to be top of mind, right? for those that aren't able to get out of their homes and don't have what they need? >> that's right. alex, i'm here in north carolina where the rain is still coming down quite heavily.

that is an enormous logistical challenge for organizations like americares trying to get supplies to people that need it most. we work with clinics, 90 of them in north and south carolina that are going to come back and start surveying the damage and our job is to help get them back up and running as quickly as possible. >> you have to have a lot of tools to get that done. we're talking boats and that kind of thing. do you have those kinds of supplies? >> we're working with the government of north and south carolina to get those tools so we can get our supplies where they're the most needed but you're right, it's quite the challenge. >> what about the hygiene kits i'm hearing about? how do they help those in need and how do you get them again to folks? >> as people leave their home and get to shelter or get away

from this terrible storm surge we have been hearing about sometimes people forget the every day items they need to stay healthy and well in a disaster. so we create these hygiene kits that has everything from diapers and other hygiene products. so we want to make sure that we get them into the shelters so people can take care of themselves. >> that's very practical. that's for sure. so tom, do you have any idea the expectation, how long you're going to be there in north carolina. >> it's important to remember it's an on going disaster and it will be for days to come until people have access and people aren't going to wait for the storm to stop so neither are we. >> what about people that say we're going to join and help

them do what they need to do? can people do that? is there a place to do that? >> people visit americares.org and take a look at what we do and please donate. we need all the help we can get. >> thank you for the time and best of luck getting the job done. much appreciated. there's more to the story of florence that meets the eye or the category number of that storm. i'm going to talk with someone that's going to explain that for you straight ahead. i don't keep track of regrets.

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tropical storm florence continues bearing down on north carolina. new flash flood warnings in effect for moore and lee counts southwest of raleigh. the national weather service says storm bands are producing 1 to 2 inches of rain per hour. this is one slow moving storm so plenty of time for that rain and water to build up. joining me is the former fema

spokesperson. welcome to you. fema, what should be happening right now on fema's behalf for help to the communities that are hit by this storm, because let's say preparation time that has long sense passed. >> that's right, alex. right now fema is supporting the response effort so there's teams that have been deployed to four states and d.c. 50 urban search and rescue teams deployed to the area that support the states and local first responders and the help also extends to other parts of the federal government so there's 4,000 national guard members deployed. the u.s. coast guard is available too to support those efforts as conditions allow. i'll say though the one thing that surprises me is there's not yet been a major disaster declaration from president trump. there has been an emergency declaration which supports these initial emergency response efforts but on thursday, the

governor requested a major disaster declaration and it's now saturday and he's not seen that request. >> what's the difference? how does that change fema's approach? whether it's an emergency disaster declaration or what you're suggesting? >> typically that will make individual assistance available for those impacted by the storm. and we have seen hundreds of thousands of people evacuated and they are going to be but it is perspective when i was at fema during the obama administration, during hurricane sandy there was a major disaster declaration for new york and new jersey and other impacted states when the first impact, the storm making landfall was being stopped so, you know, i think we anticipate that could be soon, within 24 hours or so ago but

that will make more resources available through the long-term recovery for disaster survivors. >> is there anything about the fact that in your mind it should have been done 24 hours ago and may not be done until later today or tomorrow if not at all? but does that make a difference in terms of health? if it's a 24 or 48 hour difference? >> no, it doesn't impact the initial safety efforts. the emergency declarations let the first responders know that they have federal support and financial support and these others that have been deployed but this is going to be a long-term recovery and and it's important to get that set up as quickly as possible so people know about what's available to them. >> you know, you look at this storm and you look at all the enormous amounts of water everywhere and i'm thinking back to houston and how they used their own personal boats to try

to help people. does fema have what it needs in terms of boats or are we likely to see that kind of assistance again from individual helping individuals? >> we're likely to see that kind of assistance again. it's typical for the first responders to see neighbors helping one another. there's 50 teams that are deployed and these are experts in urban search and rescue supporting the states and their efforts but, you know, in these situations it does bring out the best in everyone and how we come together to help one another. >> yeah, it really does. daniel watson, former fema spokesman, thank you for joining me. >> coming up next, what's in a number. florence went from a category 4 to a tropical storm where it stands now. why all of that may mean a lot less than you think.

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back with the latest on

tropical storm florence which is pounding north carolina. officials say about 100 remain stranded in new bern. first responders rescued 385 people since thursday night. joining me now, brian mcnolty. he joins me on the phone, thank you for doing, brian. i want you to elaborate on what you say which is there's more to the story than the category. people are always focusing on category rating. what are they missing? >> yes, that's right. that's what we like to use for situations that come up quite often. when you hear of hurricane category 1, category 3, that's the peak winds.

doesn't tell you how large the storm is, what the rainfall might be, what the storm surge might be. so when florence made landfall, it was a category 1 but it was also creating 8, 10, 11 feet of storm surge. the idea it is only a category one when you have two feet of rainfall and 10 feet of surge doesn't matter much. >> brian, the speed with which this thing is moving, it is on what's called a drifting track. how does that change things? how is that different from a direct hit? >> yeah, that makes a huge impact. it's over the land 24 hours, it moved about five miles per hour. that's a very slow speed.

so what that does if you think of a storm and all of the rain that comes with it, and it just hits the coast, and keeps moving, it has less time to dump rain. when it is only moving 5 miles per hour, it keeps raining in the same locations over and over. >> north carolina in general, are they prepared for these kinds of events given where they live? is this unusual for the state of north carolina. >> it is not terribly unusual. north carolina is certainly no stranger to getting hurricanes. their most recent was four years ago with a category 2 hurricane arthur. and then they've had some larger impacts, ones like 1999, hurricane floyd of course, very

impactful one. so this will rank up there with that, especially in terms of rainfall. i don't have current number but as of 1:00 a.m., the office, national weather service office was less than an inch from breaking the all time record rainfall from any tropical storm or hurricane. >> okay. we're going to get those numbers soon enough. brian, thank you for joining us. appreciate your time. coming your way at the top of the hour, an update on florence and live reports from the areas of the storm, the areas being hit the very hardest. who would have thought, who would have guessed? an energy company helping cars emit less. making cars lighter, it's a good place to start,

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i am alex witt at msnbc world headquarters in new york. just about 7:00 a.m. in the east. 4:00 a.m. in the west. first up, daybreak in the carolinas. tropical storm florence is no longer a hurricane. we're giving you a live look at myrtle beach, south carolina, the coastline there. the rest of the city is still in peril as flood waters will grow. high tide coming at noon. the worst is yet to come in some places, widespread flooding, sweeping rains measured in feet all still on-going. the latest track of the storm is ahead. the other headline, a bombshell plea. he must tell all to robert mueller and including what happened at the trump tower meeting. we have all of the details next on msnbc live. but it is just about sunrise in the carolinas. people wake up to a pounding from tropical storm florence.