>> congratulations. >> winner!> is is going to be a storm that's going to be a very large one, far larger thanee we've in decades. it's tremendously b and tremendously wet. i would say everybody has to get out. listen to your local authorities. >> satellite images show a massive 400-mile-wide storm inside a well-defined walla. outrage from elizabeth smart as the woman involved in her 2002 kidnapping is about to get early parole. rsia is the prime suspect in the mysterious attacks on americans in cuba. and revealing dails from

sally field and why she's glad burt reynolds will never read her memoir. it is time to go for millions across the southeast. hi oways and roads of myrtle beach and charleston have transformed into one-way evacuation routes as motorists flee to higher ground. the storm is taking dead aimt thearolinas with sustained winds at 140 miles per hour. >> another worry, potentially devastating rainfall. it is expected to dum one to two and a half feet of rain in some areas. gabe gutierrez has the latest. good morning. >> reporter: frances, good morning. a hurricane warning went into effect in myrtle beach. is popular beach town is shut down.

the colinas bracing for their strongest hurricane in two decades. the rush is on to g out. from the carolinas to virginia. more than 1 million people are desperately trying to outrun hurricane florence. how terrifying is this storm? >> yeah, t it's somethint i've been dreading since i moved here. >> reporter: in south carolina, authorities closed this highway in onelirection. al lanes now leading west away from the massive storm that's ominously thurning inhe atlantic. w this is the incredible vom noaa's hurricane hunter. >> weer are in a vy deadly and importan game of chess with hurricane florence. >> reporter: in myrtle beach. >> hurricane nor pflorence, bri on. >> reporter: there's a rush on sand. she is using it to protect home, but she's bolting for higher ground. >> we don't need to tak chances or put personnel on the line to save us. we need to go.

>> reporte still,ot everyone's fleeing florence. mark taylor decided not to heed the mandatory evacuation order. instead, they plan to hunker down in the retirement community and check on their neighbor. why are you staying? >> i've been through a lot of storms, we felt like this is our home. >> reporter: a home now in the path of the most powerful hurrane to threaten the southeast coast in more than 20 years. the national hurri center is calling florence's cloud cover staggering. and another potential danger is thathe storm slows down once it gets inland, lingering, causing massive flooding. frances? >> all right, gabe, thank you. states of emergency have been declared up and down the east coast, ahead of t ferocious hurricane. the governor theorth carolina s taken the unusual step of contacting the president and fema before thetorm hits the state.

kerry sanders repts on whether state and local governments are prepared for the worst. >> reporter: philip, even before the hurricane makes landfall, fema wants residents to cognize that over my shoulder all thoserucks are filled with supplies to help them after the storm is gone. the u.s. army ordered more an80 choppers inland to safety. the flight line now a staging area. so you're doing something differt? >> we are. we're putting supplies in various places at an earlier time. usually you wait until after the storm. >> reporter: you chose to do that with this hurricane because? >> because it is so wide, so intense. >> reporter: on the coast, residents preparing, but some also skeptical the government will be therehen they need them. >> it just seems like they're not doing as much as they need to. >> reporter: a recent gao report found fee ma was woefully

understaffed. the agency was stretched thin,o responding 692 federal disasters. >> there are a lot of lessons we learned from 2017 and we are at the ready. >> reporter: in carolina beach, they hoping fema will be there to help. >> there will always be little bumps in the road. but i'm very confident we'll be able to weather the storm. >> reporter: also preparing, powere companies lik duke energy. crews coming from as far away as the midwest to help restore power. also at the rearady, soldiers a ft. bragg. among the equipment they have at ft. bragg, really big helicopters called chinooks that can pickp heavy items and rescue people. >> how about where the storm is now? here bonnie schnyder with more

on that. >> the storm track has shifted little further west in the latest advisory. right now still a very intense category four with maximum winds at 140 miles per hour. unfortunately, we're likely to see the storm strengthen. notice the forecast calling for winds to get even stronger,ust shy of cat five status. by the time we get to the weekend, the storm will be onshore make landfall sometime thsday. but i slows down and lingers. that means the entire region fromeorgia to virginia are looking at this threat of flooding, particurly for the carolinas. we are likely to see over two feet of rain accumulate.so massive flooding is expected. this is expected to be a prolonged event. that's the biggest pro dem. the winage will be strong, but heavy rain and flooding will onbe a majorrn as we go forward. something to keep in mind. and we are watching storm surge as well for flooding up to 13 feet. >> so many layers of danger here. bon ey bonnie thank you.

ng wasnsa getti is getting r. fema is sending resources to state and local govnments. in t wake of hurricane maria's devastation in puerto rico there areri lin questions over whether it's enough. ioacy potts joins us with more. >> reporter: que about what's the track record here with the trump administration dealing with these stoorms, thee has alreadyfeen a state emergency declared from south carolina all the way to , washingtd.c., despite what happened with hurricane maria last year, this year trump says they will be ready. >> we are total prepared. we're ready. we're as ready as anybody aef'sr been. it looks a to me to a lot of talented people who do this for a living that this is going to be a very large storm, far t largn we've seen in

perhaps decades. it's tremendously big and tremendously wet. >> reporter: he also said puerto rico was an unsung reevi s. re referring to the hurricane that hit there last year, marie yeah. the estimate initially 64 and now 3,000 people who died. ays if they consider that a success they are concerned about the response to this storm. >> we'll see how he handles hurricane ylorence. than so much. turning to the surpriseness about o -- news about one of the most inf infamous ngkidnap the woman who helped kidnap elizabeth smart is expected to be released years sooner than expected. elizabeth smart is calling it incomprehensible. >> it's real! it'sreal! >> reporter: 15 years ago,

r izabeth smart's fat announced his abducted daughter was final lip comily coming hom. now in a surprise move, one of tor cap is about to go free. she was accused of helping kidnap smart and will be released in eight days. >> i despise them. >> reporter: smart, who produced a movie and wrote a book about her nine-month abduction says she was surprised and disappointed. it is incomprehensible. >> utah authorities aracking down more than 100 leads. >> reporter: kidnapped from her bedroom at knife point in 2002, she knew the 72-year-old could be released soon, speaking to megynelly just last year. >> she's up for parole, we'll see what happens. if she gets out then i'll cross that bridge. >> reporter: barzee was sentenced on state and federals char the smart family thought she'd be released in 2022. but the parole board now saying

they must count time spent inl fede custody towards her state sentence. life.ll is serving for smart, a grim reminder of how her past can still haunt her. miguel almaguer, nbc news. let's bring back in bonnie schnyder. by the looks of that map behind you, that looks like hurricane peak season. >> wou >> we are looking at peak season. one of them threatening the u.s., hurricane florence. we will be watching that one very, very closely we're also watching another system that is likely to develop and impact texas and louisiana. this invest has a 70% chance of becoming a tro depression. and that's something we're going gto be watch as we look toward the next five days. that's a look at the big weather story of the day. now here's a closer look at the day ahead. temperatures across the southeast are inhe 80s. we're looking at stormy conditions for the carolinas,

all the way down through florida. and across much of the northern tier of the country we'll look for cooler weather feeling more hike fall wi like fall with numbers in the 40s and 50s. this is one to watch. landfall's expected thursday into friday. >> a tough go for the next few days. bonnie, thanks. time to fast forward to wednesday. apple ceo is expected to unveil several new products, including the biggest and most expensive iphone yet. there's speculation we could see three new iphones. amazon is branching out. it plans to sell live, full christmas trees this year. they will be boxed andhipped within ten days of being cut. wendy giving away a free dave's cheeseburger. the offer can be redeemed once a day. an be redeemed once a day. tremfya® is for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i'm ready. with tremfya®, you can get clearer. and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin

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primar in the closely-watched first congressional house race, the democrats choice has bested more progressive candidates. no matter who wins, it is making history. democrat chris pappas would be the first openly gay member of congress. he beat aie crowded that included bernie sanders son levi. on the republicanide, former police chief eddie edwards got the nod. if he wins, he could be the state's first black congressman. >> a lot of firsts potentially. as the senate prepares to vote on judgeka naugh, one republican senator is now on the receiving end of an abusivesu pr campaign. maine senator susan collins is getting vgar and profane phone calls demanding she vote against kavanaugh, o h calling feckless. another using a slur. the recordings were obtained by nbc news through her office.ls

collins is the target of an unusual crowd funder, raising more than $1 million for any future opponent of collins should s o vote in favor kavanaugh. the senator's office calls it bribery and extorti, saying it will not work. and of course she's being targeted, because s 's thought to be one of the more moderate republicans. if there's going to be some vulnerability there, it's going to be her >> she's got a target onwh her en it comes to that. two-time oscar-winning actress sally field talked about her memoir, it involves her until she was 14 years old, he would frequeny summon her into his bedroom alone. se andails sexual a other complicated relationships and is due to be out september 18th. she is glad former lover burt reynolds who passed away last week will never be able to

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they haven't seen anything like what'soming at us in 25, 30 years. maybe ever. it's tresly big and tremendously wet. [ laughter ] >> don't worry, i'm blding an ark and mexico's going to pay for it. very wet. >> it wouldn't be a false give lene. -- equivale >> i thought that choice of word was a little strange. a young man got the chance to sing the national anthem at wrigley field. he challenged the chicago cubs to let him perform if he raised $5,000 for the special olympics. he collected more than $18,00

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good morning, everyone. i'm eun yang. >> i'm angie goff. >> preparing for a direct hit. right now local crews are heading south to help those who may be in danger. this, while millions hit the road to get outstf the m's past. >> we're still several days away from seeing the impact

. news 4 begins with a storm team 4 wther alert. tntleman packing up, gassing up and getting heck out of dodge. hurricane florence continues to churn in the atlan ic ands heading towards the east coast. millions are in the path of the storm and it's bringing strong

winds and heavy rain which could cause wespreadflooding. oh, boy. we're in for it. good morning, everyone. i'm eun yang. >> i'm angie goff in for aaron gilchrist. are keeping a close eye on hurricane florence. >> cck bell is monitoring it and we begin with melissa mollet and sheena parveen. good rning. >> good morning, ladies. yes, we have a similar pattern to yesterd except this morning we're not talking about dense fog. we had a little bitat ofy fog, but you also notice a little bit of drizzle out there throughout the morning so you might need to use the windshield wipers on your drive. 64 leesbu. 71 in quantico. so it's pretty mild out there. here's a look at t visibility, not nearly as bad as yesterday, but if you're u heading 95 towards maybe baltimore especially in philadelphia, that's who's dealing with the very dense fog this morning. be careful as you'reg. driv