amber parker, thanks very much. so that is craven county, new bern. 80 miles north of where i am located. that has seen the worst storm surge from the river. there are so many other waterways like that which line the coast of north carolina and down in south carolina. that is why this storm is of concern and the storm surge is of concern. let's go back to chad myers in the weather center. chad, that is sobering to hear from the first responders. to hear from the emergency management in that town where there are people trapped and in need. you know, i told you so. this is not about i told you so. they were warned and there were mandatory evacuations. this is why the mandatory evacuations were in place. >> i know we don't have pictures. but make this a mental picture. wind blowing for those rescuers right now gusted to 55 miles per hour. you are in a 12-foot blow-up zodiac trying to save people and your watercraft is at harm at 55 miles per hour. that is what the crews are going through. we say don't put the rescuers

so the craven county emergency management spokesperson is amber parker. amber, bring us up to date on what is happening there. >> yes, we do have numerous requests out there right now for water rescue. storm surge and flooding is a huge problem right now in certain areas of craven county. we are sending rescue teams throughout the day and evening to fairfield harbor, portions of new bern and township seven. we are continuing to send rescue teams to where we can safely get there, but there are places where we can't reach right now. >> what are the conditions that are causing people to call you and realize, i should have gotten out of dodge? >> water in homes and there are also people in vehicles becoming flooded. >> how dangerous a situation is this and sort of what is your standard for where you will send someone to try to have a rescue and where you just can't get to right now? >> it is extremely dangerous. the water is rushing. there are downed power lines so you don't know if there's electricity touching the water. what we do is go out to area "politica

we are fortunate to be joined by telephone by amber parker who is craven county emergency management.portant because craven county is at the head end of the river where new bern is undergoing a lot of high water. and, amber, tell us about any rescues that are underway there. >> we've had numerous flood rescues today, and the calls continue to come in. we've had to send crews out to our fairfield harbor area, portions of new bern, the adams creek area, and township 7. we do have crews out there right now and they are working as hartd as they can to get there. >> we're looking at you on radar now. you're entering into another really torrential band of rain. >> yes, i did receive a call from the national weather service and they did alert me that in areas we have already exceeded the levels of water we saw in hurricane irene and we are expecting more water to come in. >> do you have a percentage of people who decided to stay? and how much of new bern was under a mandatory evacuation? >> well, the mandatory evacuation was issued for all of craven county. and that was issued as a 2:00 p.m.

. >> once again we're talking with amber parker, the director and public information officer of craven county there and this is a hard hit area and, amber, looking at some images we have seen that have been truly troubling including at least one house fire there, those are among the calls that you're getting. >> reporter: i have seen a call regarding a structure fire. >> i imagine that's a really tough thing to be fighting in these early morning hours. we saw the forecast. thought it would be a category 5 that describes the wind for this storm. did it end up being worse than you all thought it would be? >> i think none of us really knew how slow moving the storm would be initially. the storm has really -- this hurricane has just come on top of our area and so we're not only getting the rain and the wind but also the storm surge and the longer this turns over craven county the worse effects will be. >> amber, how did the city prepare for this storm? talk a little bit about that. >> insuresure, the storm was oue far off the coast even started to make preparations, of course, we stay prep

i'm being told amber parker is back on the phone. from new burn emergency management. there's more rescue going on? >> we have our fire rescue team out there trying to save people from homes and vehicles. >> amber, now we heard reports from the more head city mayor there were people on rooftops. is that situation similar to where you are? or people have stranded in their homes with water surrounding. >> it's alyle bit of both. we have reports of people on rooftops and people in attics. people in their homes and water coming into the house. it's a different level of water. and reports of water breeching vehicles. >> how many people do you have out there. what's the size of the crew you have actually deployed? >> i don't know exactly how many people are on the crew. we have our swift water rescue for and we have two additional crews. that are expected to come into craven county. >> based on the forecast and do you have a sense is there a point that's coming up it will be too dangerous for those crews to continue to go out and do the rescues? >> it's already too dangerous.

that way they are safe while amber parker from craven county. new bern is t townthere. thank you. on the hurricane and new details on the other breaking story. mysterious explosions rocking the suburbs of bosatn. investigs still trying to figure outxa what ectly went on abnd are.y th itrsr smidsize car-the chevy malibu. i forgot. chevy also won a j.d. power dependability award for its light-duty truck the chevy silverado. oh, and since the chevy equinox and traverse also won chevy is the only brand to earn the j.d. power dependability award across cars, trucks and suvs-three years in a row. phew. third time's the charm... i'd say i'm a pretty spwell... i try to be. get 3-wick candles 2 for $20 everyday, so you can find one to suit every side of you. pier 1, this is me. vojimmy (shouting): james!as been jimmy's longest. he's survived record rain and a supplier that went belly up. so while he's proud to have helped put a roof over the heads of hundreds of families, he's most proud of the one he's kept over his own. brand vo: get the most out of your money, whether you're using quick

i want to go to amber parker, and she is the craven county emergency management person who is helping to coordinate some of the rescues that we have been showing you all morning, and amber, i think that there are more of those than expected and what is the situation right now? >> yes, we have currently had over 188 calls for rescue of 488 people, and the calls are continuing to come in. we have people who are reporting that they are trapped in attics and on the roofs and also in vehicles that are flooding. >> all right. trying to see if we have amber. amber, do we have that connecti connection? >> yes, we are here. >> all right. amber, talk to me about the kind of situation that we are facing. we spoke the people in new bern stuck in their home, and then getting the national guard rescue rescues, and what kind of rescues are going to be undertaken right now, and how are they determined? people are call in, and dispatching? >> yes, we have people calling in themselves, and the individuals having family members contacting us, and they have been without power for a significant amount of

i want to bring in amber parker on the phone please.raven county, north carolina, hr, public information director. i believe ma'am, you are in new bern is that correct? is that right. >> that's correct. we're in craven countdown in new bern at the emergency operations center. stuart: we understand there is a rescue operation going on all night in new bern. have you got everybody out? >> no, not everybody. we had rescue operations that started yesterday. we have had numerous reports of individuals trapped by high water, flooding. people on their roofs, trapped in cars or attics. we've been working as hard as we can to get to those individuals. we currently have five swift-water rescue teams out there. we are working with the louisiana "cajun navy." stuart: the "cajun navy" arrived. that is good news indeed. >> yes, they're a welcome sight. stuart: as i understand it you were hit with sudden, rapid rise in water, at your emergency center, is that correct? no right. we did actually have some water in our emergency center. this facility we'

amber parker is a public information officer and in new bern. us how it's going right now, amber. >> one thing that maybe changed since the last few times we talked is we have daylight on our side. that makes it easier to see the hazards we have. we still have this giant hurricane moving very slowly. certainly bringing in a lot of flooding waters and storm surge, wind, and rain. that in itself makes the conditions very difficult to respond. we have people that are still trapped. more calls are coming in. we have teams doing rescues as fast as they can. >> you are up against it with the clock. high tide around 11:45. it's not an exact time. it's not a swiss train. when do you have the first responders stop the rescues for a moment? >> they mainly look at if the winds are unsafe and we have the cajun navy assisting as well. >> we are looking at live pictures of people being rescued. one of the big emergency vehicles scooping up people who chose to stay behind or maybe had no choice in their minds other than to stay behind. we are talking about you

joining us on the phone amber parker, public information officer. thanks for joining us.t with the situation in new bern and surrounding areas. >> well, new bern has a lot of work to do, we are currently still doing rescues as needed and many welfare checks, hundreds of welfare check that is we are still working on completing, we have roughly 487 people still in shelters, we have 5 shelters that are open, on top of the current situation that we are facing we are also preparing for additional flood to go come our way as flood waters from the northwest actually drain into our river basins so we know that we are not out of the woods yet even though we are focusing on recovery we have damage assessment teams out right now looking at what kind of damage is out in our community as well as internal damage assessment because not only are we dealing with assisting our community but us as county government we've also taken a hit and have damage to our own facilities. charles: amber, how are you accounting for folks who stayed behind, stayed in their homes and now find themselves in