the hurricane as soon as is practical. david? >> jon karl, thank you. >>> there's still much more ahead on "world news tonight" this thursday. breaking news tonight. dozens of explosions outside boston, in several different communities. you can see the homes in flames there. authorities urging some residents to get out. we'll have the latest in a moment. >>> the deadly rampage in the west the gunman opening fire, shooting five victims in multiple locations. what authorities have now revealed. >>> and elizabeth smart back in the news tonight and speaking out. her urgent plea tonight, just days before one of her kidnappers is about to go free. authorities say they miscalculated the time served. miscalculated the time served. we'll be right back. loors with d bucket is a hassle, meaning you probably don't clean as often as you'd for a quick and convenient clean, try swiffer wetjet. there's no heavy bucket, or mop to wring out, because the absorb and lock technology traps dirt and liquid inside the pad. it's safe to use on all

those are the outer bands of the hurricane, of hurricane florence. these particular bands now approaching us in myrtle beach don't have rain in them. wind, you're feeling the wind increase here. we may not get rain before the end of the day. i want to bring in the chief information officer here at myrtle beach. we have two stories. folks in north carolina who are getting hit. they feel it. there's no joke. no one is trying to get out of town. if you're here in a place like myrtle beach, it's windy but not that windy. should you leave at this point if you haven't left? >> yes. we've been telling people to evacuate all week. most folks took that advice. they are out of town. if you haven't left yet now is the time to do it. we're expecting 48 hours worth of hurricane force winds. that's a long time. usually a hurricane comes and goes. this is not a thrill ride opportunity on. >> that's an important point. for a lot of people a hurricane is a thrill ride. the flooding and the storm surge here, and the sustained winds for that long means your roof might

then you speak of the amount of hurricanes, what about andrew and the 1935 labor day hurricane? what is the amount? how many servicemen were down here in the keys in 1975? they were being evacuated by the flagler railroad and were caught in the hurricane. guest: thank you. i'm sorry to hear about your situation. it sounds frustrating. i want to talk about the sheltering issue. in the after action report by fema, sheltering particularly in florida was at a historic level of evacuation and sheltering. it was a massive challenge. were not ascials prepared as they could have been for the need to evacuate and shelter so many people for a long time. that is something that needs to be looked at. it will be interesting to see this is handled with hurricane florence this week. in places like north carolina and the outer banks, there will be need to evacuate those people. some people have the ability to stay in hotels or with friends and family. be a massive ability to shelter people in cases like this. host: what was the post-katrina emergency reform act? did it make a difference? guest:

states no stranger to hurricane, the category 2 storm, how does it compare to other major hurricanes? joining the is meteorologist joe pastoredi. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. wish i was on under better conditions but someday when there is nice, sunny, high-pressure. >> hopefully that won't be far away following the storm. i'm from the carolinas, lived in south carolina, grew up in north carolina. i'm no stranger to these hurricanes. talk about how this one compares off the coast to some others, specifically people think a lot about hugo. i was in north carolina when you go ahead, power outages for a long time after that was a big issue with that storm. >> you go with a fast-moving. in some ways this is like hugo. hugo was a category 2 storm 18 hours before landfall. it hit coming in perpendicular to the coast which is a crucial factor because instead of just paralleling because like matthew did and drawing in drier air this is coming in off of the atlantic and they tend to tighten up or intensify the last 12 to 18 hours and i suspect if you look at the photograph this is re-intensi

mmm, that's good. >>> we are monitoring the latest on hurricane florence as we wait for the hurricaneo make land fall. we will have an update from fema on this massive hurricane. >> good morning. we know that they started off the morning here at fema with their operational meeting, so that is likely still ongoing. but we do expect them to come out here and give us the very latest as far as where their assets are deployed and their final warnings, essentially for people who are in that target area. we do know that, you know, aside from warnings people that they need to get out, fema as well as the army core of engineers are paying closer to five federally operated dams in the target area. army core of engineers saying they will be paying close attention to those dams because obviously the bottom line is they don't want this issue of a breach, so they will be monitoring and managing those five dams throughout the storm. as for fema, we haven't heard from them yet this morning. we will in a few minutes. we do expect them to continue on with a message they have had all along, which is you

the storm is almost a combination of hurricane hugo and hurricane floyd.t brings elements of both. hugo brought high wind and impact. if you want to look at the disaster dollars connected to either one of those events, this one has the potential to line up with that. host: brock long yesterday again with that fema briefing. he will have another one today. go to c-span.org for more details if you want to listen to what the administrator says. we are just moments away from landfall in north carolina for hurricane florence. what has been your experience dealing with the government or your thoughts on the government's preparedness for hurricanes? if you, last year, were impacted by hurricane harvey in texas or irma or those in puerto rico, for hurricane maria, we want to know your thoughts on government preparedness for this hurricane this morning. the wall street journal has a headline on their front page, florence threatens heavy floods. this is about how citizens are prepared for hurricanes. 134,306 policies in place in north carolina from the national floo

you and i have talked before during these hurricanes. i know that this is the final flight of the day. what are you seeing right now? >> david, we are flying north hurricane florence right now. our job today is to get any kind of of clues about where this storm is going. the fine tuning just before landfall. one alarming thing is, i don't see a lot disrupting it. >> i know you talked about looking for any signs of sheer, which potentially could be good news for those of us waiting for this impending storm. are there any signs of that? >> david, to be honest with you, i'm not particularly hopeful that we'll find something that will knock a little of the strength out of florence. >> jack, what are you seeing as far as the size and scope of this hurricane? >> well, right now, it has managed to keep a very strong core. we've seen dry air intrusions both yesterday and today that should be weakening the storm. however, this storm creates its own environment. the area of the highest winds will spread out, kind of like sandy, so, this is not goi

an extremely dangerous major hurricane according to the national hurricane center. a storm so massive, an astronaut on the space station said they could only capture it with a super wide angle lens, calling it, quote, chilling even from space. that's a quote right there. with wave heights of up to 83 feet. that's about the height of a seven-story building. moving more and more slowly as it closes in on the carolina coast. from late tomorrow through early sunday, florence is expected to travel slower than you could walk, about two to three miles an hour. so here's why that's really bad news for some 20 million people in the storm's path. it's bad news because florence will effectively stall, and then it's going to absolutely pound the storm zone for days and days. so forecasters are warning of life-threatening flooding as rising water moves inward. the storm surge basically a wall of water. it could be 13 feet high. we're going to have a brand-new forecast coming up for you during this show, so make sure you stay tuned, okay? it's very important. but i want you to li

he said hurricane floyd and then corrected himself to hurricane florence. it came on the heels that have presidential tweet, that one-two punch, and you heard kelly o'donnell talk about it where he said 3,000 people didn't die. house speaker paul ryan is about to hold a news conference. you know he's going to be asked about this. senator orrin hatch was asked by our team. hatch, when told about the donald trump tweet, orrin hatch, ally of the president, had a shocked or confused expression. that's perfect his own aides who confirmed this, said i don't know anything about that. he said there is no doubt that the response or that the hurricane itself was a tragedy. >> the other thing about this, and all that is really important is we are not just talking about the president saying things that are counterfactual and have been pre-fact checked to be wrong by tamara but the president diminishing the severity of a hurricane that happened a year ago that was extremely devastating in puerto rico on the eve of an extremely potentially devastating hurricane. people a

couldn't be prepared for this hurricane season and hurricane florence today. has anything changed your mind? guest: absolutely not. you can't fema be prepared for magnitude of diversity of disaster that hit last year. and you can't really be prepared for this kind of hurricane that's hitting north carolina, south carolina right now. they are too big, they are too unpredictible. they are massive challenges no matter what. obviously climate scientists say because these storms are being fueled by a warmer weather atmosphere they are even worse. and when our administration doesn't seem to accept that reality sometimes, i think it's hard to be prepared for the larger, more dangerous reality when you don't accept that that reality exists. host: you also wrote about recently the potential public health. we read a little bit before you came out here about the hog population in north carolina. talk more about what it looks like in north carolina and what are the potential impacts and what are people doing in preparation for florence to prevent a public and environmenta

as the hurricane pushes water inland for days here. abc's chief national affairs correspondent tom llamas tonight in myrtle beach, south carolina, where there is new urgency with this shifting track. tom leading us off. >> we are under a mandatory evacuation. >> reporter: tonight, the warning is clear. get out. >> this is not going to be a glancing blow. this is going to be, you know, a mike tyson punch to the carolina coast. >> reporter: the largest hospital in myrtle beach racing to evacuate patients. many of them critically ill, loaded into this ambulance bus. some taken as far as florida. >> it's not safe to try to care here. we're trying to get everybody out. and as such, we're shutting the hospital down. >> reporter: the reason? this monster storm. our station, wtbd, with the hurricane hunters, flying into the eye. florence's wingspan, 500 miles across. astronauts needing a wide angle lens to capture it from space. on satellite, that eye wall so clearly defined. you can see towering thunderstorms swirling around the clear eye. th

hurricane florence not going to be a, quote, glancing blow. it's going to be a mike tyson punch to the carolina coast. give us the latest. >> well, even mike tyson got a little tired from time to time. it may not have been until round eight or nine, but he looked a little ragged at times, and that's what florence looks like. however he always came back with a couple of combinations, punches. when florence gets into the gulf stream, those warm waters, don't be surprised if florence gets a little power back and throws her own flurry of punches here because what we're watching looks like the eye is trying to collapse. i mean winds are at 115, don. if it gets down to 110, this is category 2. do not be fooled by this. this has got a lot -- she's got tricks up her sleeve. but the eye wall replacement, when you spin a top on a table, it can only sustain that strength and that centrifugal force for so long. it's got to go through these cycles. but what happens is that tight eye starts to wobble, and it throws

ken graham at the national hurricane center. much more ahead as we track hurricane florence. we'll talk to somebody that says he's not leaving his beach town despite the mandatory evacuation. up next, a live report from the coast as florence moves in. oh, my goodness. the pier. we'll be watching that throughout the day. mitzi: psoriatic arthritis tries to get in my way? watch me. ( ♪ ) mike: i've tried lots of things for my joint pain. now? watch me. ( ♪ ) joni: think i'd give up showing these guys how it's done? please. real people with active psoriatic arthritis are changing the way they fight it. they're moving forward with cosentyx. it's a different kind of targeted biologic. it's proven to help people find less joint pain and clearer skin. don't use if you are allergic to cosentyx. before starting cosentyx you should be checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms of an infection. or if you have received a vaccine, or plan to. if you have inflammatory bowel dis

hurricane florence is right here on the coast. the monster hurricane slowing down and it is massive tonight. tropical storm force winds, more than 300 miles across. destructive winds already lashing the coast, blinding rain, waves smashing through buildings. water rushing down streets. more than 40 inches of rain possible. power outages by the thousands already reported tonight. >>> the nuclear plant shutting down tonight right in the path of the hurricane. we're live up and down the coast, communities already getting hit. meteorologist ginger zee with the new track just out. when and where florence is now expected to make landfall. and my interview tonight with the police chief here and his new given how slow this massive hurricane is moving. >>> also tonight, after president trump told millions that the government is fully prepared for this hurricane, the president tweeting today, questioning how many really died in puerto rico, saying 3,000 people didn't die after hurricanes hit puerto rico, and the president now says that numb

flooding like we saw with hurricane harvey.t can we expect incoming hours and days? we are monitoring every move of the storm. live team coverage from the coast of the carolinas where we come right back. i love you, basement guest bathroom. your privacy makes you my number 1 place to go number 2. i love you, but sometimes you stink. febreze air effects doesn't just mask, it cleans away odors. because the things you love the most can stink. and try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. breathe happy with febreze. it gives me more healthy energy to keep up with my hectic schedule and you're gonna love what it does for you too. [ tiffany ] i could definitely use a little more energy, especially if it's from a natural source like beets. [ cliff ] if i had something natural and healthy that gave me energy, i'd be all in. [ randy ] energy equals happiness. [ loesch ] beets contain an essential nutrient that makes them one of the most heart-healthy vegetables in nature. superbeets concentrates that nutrient into

we are racking hurricane florence right now. take a live look from the roads in wilmington, north carolina where you can see the effects of this storm right now even though the eye still hasn't made it's way on to the east coast. the storm was downgraded last night to a category 1 but it's still very dangerous with 90 miles per hour winds. >> a new advory is due out in about 14 minutes. chuck and sheena are looking out for it. they'll be joining us for the latest update. >> he is about 20 minutes away from that that you just saw. >> right there. >> let me get you new information from the national hurricane center. the eye wall is beginning to brush agast theorth carolina coast so we're getting ready to see landfall at some point but a very slow moving orm. the attack has been relentless. sheets of rain beingy pushed strong wind gusts here. much higher than expected. at's moving closer to the shore. it's around here and these conditions are likely to continue for a full day or more here and across the strike zone right now. this

full team of reporters covering the hurricane.n mcgrath on set covering the path contessa brewer is live on the ground in north carolina, but first jackie deangelis in carolina beach, north carolina with what he's heshe's hearing feeling. >> i'm feeling the velocity of this wind pelting the rain around you can feel it on your body and it almost hurts. feels like hail. the winds are picking up the rain is coming down harder than it was even last night when the outer bands had just started making their approach here so, the latest that we know is that the eye of the storm is about 30 miles away, maybe a bit less than that this was called the bullseye of the storm. it looks like the weather models were pretty accurate with respect to that. right now you have almost 300,000 people reported across north carolina without power but the concern is that you will see millions, maybe up to 3 million without power. the problem there is not just the lack of electricity or the difficulty in taking care of people and hospitals, people who really

this is still a major hurricane. you can see0 this les away from womilmington, north caroli right around where we think it lands, or close to it. the latest advisory came out at 2:00. the next advisory comes out in under an hour, but now winds at 125 miles per hour moving northwest at 16 miles per hour. the pressure up to 948 milibars. it's expected to crossgu over t stream, very warm water, back to a category 4 hurricane and close to shore friday morning as a category 3, 120 miles per hour hurricane, and quickly inland.s as it moves the biggest track and change here is a little bit mo of a southeack. remember, two days ago, all the way up to wash igton, d.c. nos not even on the north carolina/virginia border. much more on this, what it means to the area, and what it means to thein car. we got it for you in minutes. >> thank you, doug. >> thanks, >>> the low lying barrier islands of north carolina are bracing for a hit from the hurricane. >> that's where news 4 is now with coverage, j is live, some 280 s mouth of the

has experienced a hurricane since hurricane of that magnitude since hurricane hazel in the 50s. going to be a significant storm and expect to have widespread power outages. we're expecting from one to three million outages from the homes and businesses that we serve out of the four million customers here in the carolinas. talking about 25 to 75% of our customer base could expect to lose power. not just a few days either. not just a multiday outage but certainly a multi-week outage as well. depending on the severity of the flooding as well as the damage from the hurricane winds themselves. >> shepard: i remember seeing duke trucks one after another after another in florida for hurricanes and down in louisiana and mississippi for that matter. i'm guessing they have your back. >> absolutely. i just came from our incident command center here in raleigh. we're well-prepared at duke energy to respond in the aftermath of hurricane florence. we have amassed a restoration army of over 20,000 personnel. the largest restoration force that we've ever established here in the carolinas. over

hurricane florence has arrived in full force. the storm is currently battering the state of north carolina come with torrential rainfall and powerful winds. rescue efforts are underway in communities that have been completely shut off. waterways have not even reached their peak. the bbc's laura trevelyan is irt wilmington, carolina, has been out in the elements all day. laura: well, rajini, it was a dramatic scene here after 7:00 a.m. this morning where the eyewall of the hurricane land here in wilmington, north carolina, and there was an eerie green light that denotes the cent of the eyewall, i've never seen anything like it. the weather is still dramatic. a mother and her infant were killed in wilmington after a tree fell on their home. the greatest threat is from flooding as the storm swells off the coast of the carolinas and downs rainfall for at least two days.ol here is myague chris buckler. chris: the carolinas knew what was coming, but they could never fully prepare for the force of florence. along the coastline, houses f

the last hurricane of this magnitude was hurricane hazel. there was houses floating in the waterway. >> you can sense the stress in her voice. already the state has opened more than 100 shelters, more than 7,000 people in those shelters. the first signs of power loss. more than 12,000 people in the state have lost power before the storm has actually hit. dana? >> dana: certainly there will be more of that. thanks, steve. we'll be right back. as one of the nation's largest investors in infrastructure, we don't just help power the american dream, we're part of it. this is our era. this is america's energy era. nextera energy. billions of problems. morning breath? garlic breath? stinky breath? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath fresh breath oral rinse instantly fights all types of bad breath and works for 24 hours. so you can... breathe easy. there's therabreath at walmart. - (phone ringing)a phones offers - big button,ecialized phones... and volume-enhanced phones., get details on this state program. call or visit and accessoriesphones

brand-new hurricane forecast out from the national hurricane center and they thought it would strengthen. it's gotten weaker. cat 3. 120-mile-an-hour maximum sustained winds but the core has a large, making the storm surge of even greater concern. let's go live now to ed rappaport, deputy director of the national hurricane center in south florida. >> good evening. this is a 5:00 p.m. eastern time update on hurricane florence. florence remains a dangerous hurricane closing in on the southeast coast. this hour, the center of the hurricane is looking less than 400 miles offshore approaching north carolina and south carolina. very dangerous hurricane, category 3 on the scale, winds of 120 miles per hour. don't think there will be much change in terms of intensity over the next day or two. likely to approach the coast late thursday into friday with winds near that strength. because of those wins, we are expecting a very high storm surge. as the center of the storm approached the coast, strong winds, pushing water ashore and it will mean a storm surge as high as 9 to 13 feet. along portions of

the company's hurricane relief plan next. >>> but first a small town devastated by a hurricane just two years ago now prepares for a potential direct hit from hurricane florence. >>> and we head to the racetrack being turned into an emergency shelter. ninety-six hundred roads named "park" in the u.s. it's america's most popular street name. but allstate agents know that's where the similarity stops. if you're on park street in reno, nevada, the high winds of the washoe zephyr could damage your siding. and that's very different than living on park ave in sheboygan, wisconsin, where ice dams could cause water damage. but no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local allstate agents knows yours. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands? kellogg's chocolate mmm chocolatey mmm mmm mmmmmm yeah, chocolate! chocolatey. crunch into chocolatey gr-r-reatness. they're gr-r-reat! they work togetherf doing important stuff. the hitch? like you, your cells get hungry. feed them... with centrum micronutrients. restoring your awesome, daily. centrum. feed your cells. what might seem like

director for hurricane hunters.ou hear me? >> yes, i can. good evening. >> thank you so much for calling in. you just got a whole set of new data from your flight. what'd you learn? >> well, it's a little bit of good news in a bad news story. we found that the southern side of the storm is -- the outro is not really working well for a storm that would prefer to develop so that's good news but we're -- that, we're finding, is working against the idea of the storm, at least in this moment, getting stronger so anything we can do or find to maybe lean in that direction, we're happy to find that information. now, the storm still has the ability to strengthen over the next 24 hours. it's going to go over some warmer water and potentially less sheer so we've got to keep our fingers crossed that we'll continue to find a little bit of good news as we keep these flights going. >> so, paul, this is your fourth flight over florence. you said on monday that you had a sick feeling in your gut watching this storm form. do you stil

hurricane florence. over 4 million people from virginia to the south carolina coast are currently under storm watch or warning. georgia is now forecasted to follow along the hurricane's path. >> although the storm has been downgraded to a category 2, it is still considered extremely dangerous. forecasters warn the hurricane could hover for days, drenching the coastline and punishing rain and leading to possible inland flooding. meteorologist bonnie schneider is tracking the storm. where exactly is it at this hour? >> right now, phillip and frances, it's bearing down. you can see outer bands getting very close to the carolina coastline. i want to point out the size. you mentioned that it's larger. if we were to look the at the entire storm, it's almost 400 miles wide. so even though hurricane frances is now a category 2 storm, don't le let that intensity let your guard down. it will slow down by the time it approaches the coastline. we're expecting landfall sometime late tonight into early tomorrow. becau

this was a big concern after hurricane harvey in texas and hurricane maria in puerto rico.t are fema officials saying now? >> reporter: aside from hammering home that today is the last safe day to evacuate, they made it clear that they are paying attention to a wide variety of factors. this hurricane florence, they do know that the storm surge will be an issue. that storm surge threatens to unleash toxic chemicals in the area. the carolinas, there are about nine industrial sites with contaminated soil and water. fema and e.p.a. say they are monitoring this as the storm surge rushes in this will become more of a critical issue. also, fema continues to face just critical questions about whether they will be able to adequately respond just overall as an agency. today, though, in the briefing that we had this morning, they say they are truly confident that they have the resources and the funding necessary to respond adequately. >> also, fema officials were asked about a new report that was put out by democratic senator that fema funds were being used or being diverted, i guess,

but a ca category 1 hurricane is still a hurricane and that means hurricane force winds which we're right think we have a reasonably good chance of getting this eye, the actual eye of the hurricane, if it holds together, getting ragged, but if it holds together i think it could come over us here and if that happens, that will be an extraordinary picture for you to see. it is possible, even though it's ragged now, that we would have the winds completely abate and you couldn't see -- i have been in an eyewall where you could see sun and sky and blue through. i haven't been in an eye in a while. we're in the eyewall i think right now. which means that's where some of the strongest winds and heaviest rainfall is. so that's where we are. we're getting sun up and i hesitate to ask ben to move anywhere, so he's going to stay where he is. as you maybe see, that's the ocean out there. and as i may have mentioned earlier, the positive about this and the way the storm is oriented, coming now from the north to the south of us, we are south of it, we are getting a slow because of the counterclockwise

we have experienced other hurricanes in puerto rico. this is not the first hurricane. of course it's the largest hurricane we have experienced in over a hundred years. but in terms of other hurricanes we have also received better help, better assistance from fema than we did this time. why did fema collapse? and the conclusion that fema collapsed is not my conclusion. it's the conclusion that fema itself has. if you hear the testimonials of so many families, so many communities, so many mayors up in the mountains who just did not get the assistance that we are used to getting in other hurricanes. i mean, something happened this time around that simply the federal aid and the local aid and the state aid totally collapsed. and the results, harvard, george washington university both did independent studies, and the data is there, over 3,000 people died who did not have to die. that's a tragedy. that's a national tragedy for the united states. >> did the federal government and the president of the united states fail the people of puerto rico? >> yes, they did, yes, they di

, but the hurricane is barely moving. seven hours after landfall we are still getting bands like this. i have never seen this before, only because most hurricanes don't move at four or five miles per hour. we have no steering flow, so this will be an issue not only from the surge perspective with another high tide at midnight tonight and noon tomorrow on this side of the intracoastal, also out on the atlantic side and rainfall totals have already added up to over 20 inches in some spots. unfortunately, this storm is now a killer here in wilmington, ali. a tree fell on a home earlier today killing a mom and her infant. the father was transported to the hospital with injuries. so the best thing to do is stay put. power out right now to about 610,000 customers in north carolina and 80,000 and climbing in south carolina. it will be a long several days. even once the winds die down and florence weakens and moves into the appalachians later in the weekend, we will have river flooding that may last into the first or middle part

so is hurricane harvey. hurricanes haven't been the president's strong suit. instead of saying that -- >> we have seen what hurricane responses or lack of appropriate response ks do to presidents and presidential legacies. chris murphy this morning wrote, and he is saying this is in politics, but let me read it to people. quote, i mean this seriously. if you are in florence's path and considering riding it out, your president just said that a hurricane response where 3,000 people die is a measure of success. get out of there. >> it is hard to compare these two areas. obviously puerto rico is an island. i'm not endorsing his response to it. but these are very different areas, very different storms. martin luther king once said we don't get to make history. history makes us. and the president appears to be trying to make history by touting his response to hurricane maria. when in reality the numbers show it was a devastating tragic storm for an entire island with nearly 3,000 people dead. he appears to be trying to shift the history books. that is part of the re

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we begin with hurricane florence. she has made landfall after thrashing the carolinas all night long with devastating flooding and damaging winds. forecasters are warning the storm surge is life threatening and will be even worse at high tide later this morning. >> the center of the storm is near wilmington north carolina with sustained winds of 90 miles an hour. that makes it a category 1. don't underestimate the power of the storm because of that storm surge. rising water has flooded several coastal cities swamping homes and businesses. >> more than 490,000 homes and businesses across the region have lost power. we have a team of correspondents covering the storm. jeff leads our coverage from wilmington north carolina where it looks like conditions have gotten worse over the past few hours, jeff. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. we just experienced the second highest gust ever reported in wilmington. 105 miles an hour. we have dealt with one side of the storm. we're about to now deal with the other side of the storm

we have had many hurricanes before.n the future, but we are a very tenacious group of folks down here. we love all americans and we are just so -- our arms are welcome to folks coming into our community, and we'll have the roads fixed and we'll be back in business. just again, we do have teams coming in from missouri. we have a rescue team that told me a couple of hours ago that they are coming in from houston, texas. so we just appreciate so much, the resources, and again, on a state level we're getting the resources we need. the national guard is here. we have been door to door. we knew this was coming. we have fire trucks with p.a. systems going around the communities followed by national guard, followed by the city of new bern recreational buses to get folks i these buss and get them to state shelters. >> that's all good to hear, and i appreciate and admire your spirit and your resiliency, mayor dana outlaw, and you do have our prayers. you take care. thank you. >> thank you. thank you so much. >> all right. just wh

water is the most deadly part of the hurricane. though the winds are down the water is expected to be tremendous and that is what kills people. >> yes. main concern is lines that might be down. storm surge, we are predicting 4 feet higher than irene which was the record. looks very much like hurricane hazel. jillian: is your town ready for this? >> we are. we have been preparing for the last three days. our emergency operations center, we have been coordinating all of our staff in the eeoc centers, we are continuing to stress that you need to evacuate. we do have some centers, some transportation, several areas that are low-lying. it is going to be hard to get folks out if they get stranded. rob: new bern is pretty much coastal. it is on a bit of an inlet but you are in the mandatory evacuation the. what do you expect your town, i'm curious about the outer banks, when will these look like after the storm moves through? they could be covered in water? >> we planned for all of these in the past week. a lot of resources available. we

lauren: as hurricane florence turn closer to the coast, threatened to flood the inland as well.ryl: todd piro in myrtle beach, good morning. >> good morning, guys. in the area where we were we could have been trapped, nobody coming if for a while. we moved to another location that had light the power outages were following us more and more as we made our way down till we found an area, shelter, pretty windy as you can see behind me here, take a look, tropical storm warnings, tropical lancaster, lexington. showing how expansive the storm s more evidence of that, check this out, more amazing, international space station images of a wildly far-reaching storm that's going to lingering and while winds are always a concern in a hurricane, huge worry with florence in south carolina is life-threatening water. >> something else that you may not have heard before is that we may have landslides in the up state as a result of this and that's because i think it's about 7-inches of rain maybe expected in up state, so this is still a very, very dangerous storm not only on the coast but also in

a hurricane that almost hit hawaii.opical storm hitting mississippi and now florence. >> give you the response that we got from the dhs secretary. he posted this on twitter. the money in question transferred to, could not have been used. dhs stand fiscally and operationally ready. so they are claiming the money couldn't go to this hurricane response. >> that's just kind of a lot of bunk. when you have preparedness lines and lines dedicated to response, that's exactly the sort of funds that help you prepare and address the damage that comes from these storms. so it's really kind of an evil partnership here in which the funds are being taken away from preparation. after we knew the impact of the three massive hurricanes from last year and then the money is being directed towards a program that comes from a very dark place in the heart of the administration, which is ripping thousands of children out of the arms of their parents, then locking their parents up. >> i understand you have on the record and you have been to the

like he had control over a hurricane.he editorial board over at "the washington post" literally claiming that president trump is complicit in causing the hurricane. you cannot make this up, because of his "efforts to dismantle environmental protection that because there hurricane." not giving president trump credit for the booming economy or energy independence or the progress with north korea, and no missiles over japan or the victory over isis, or tax cuts or so much more, but somehow they want you to believe that he is responsible for mother nature. and by the way, in less than two years of office, he has become that all mighty and powerful that he can collude with god in this case and creates massive hurricanes. it's beyond sick and beyond ugly and twisted. this derangement syndrome, the state of psychosis is reaching heights of what is borderline insanity. it is not just the abusively biased "washington post" either trying to politicize their hurricane florence, take a look. >> president trump says fema is ready for

this storm is almost a combination of hurricane hugo and hurricane floyd. you know, it brings elements of both. hugo brought high winds and inland impacts and floyd caused a lot of inland rainfall that caused a lot of problems. if you look at the disaster dollars connected to either one of those events, this one has the potential, by all means, to line up with that. yes, ma'am. >> hi. this is a question for mr. cheatham. staffing-wise, how has this impacted the ability to do your job and keep people safe? are there positions that aren't filled that should be there? mr. cheatham: we're staffed at the levels we were during last year's response season in 2017 with harvey, irma, maria and the california wildfires confronted us and we're prepared to move. administrator long: yes, sir. >> spectrum news. you guys talked a lot about how well relationships with state and local officials are, especially in the carolinas. are any noticeable vulnerabilities that you noticed in that relationship that are void or in terms of services ahead of this that you say this is a

paul flaherty, a hurricane hunter flying near hurricane florence. he is with me on the phone, so, palm, i know you flew over, around the storm the last couple of days. tell me what you are seeing right now. >> reporter: good afternoon. we're just approaching the storm at this time. we are on the southwest side, again, we did a couple circles just on the outside of the eyewall of hurricane florence, so i don't have a lot of information of what we will get out of this mission. we know it will be critical for the forecast as the national hurricane center and emergency managers started to look at those last minute evacuations. >> what kind of information are you trying to getting paul? >> reporter: well, what we're doing is we're collecting a lot of data that will go into the water models. over the ocean, this is a lot of weather data the models need to start with data in order to make forecast. so. as you can image within no data, they need to interpret late the information. we are auto her to give them real information 360 degrees and u.s. 130s on the

florence is a very large hurricane. hurricane force winds extend outward 80 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extent nearly 200 miles out from the center. florence is forecast to slow down as it approaches the coast. so even today as we see outer rain bands from florence move into the outer banks of north caroli carolina, landfall is not expected for another 36 hours some time friday afternoon, friday evening or even early saturday morning. this slow moving very large hurricane will bring a long-term extreme rain, storm surge and hurricane force wind threat to eastern north carolina and south carolina into the weekend. in north carolina, we're particularly concerned about the pamilco sound and the noose rivers where 12 to 15 feet storm surge is forecast. 6 to 9 feet of storm surge are forecast. and several astronomical high tide cycles. as far as rainfall, possibly 40 inches or more, especially in eastern north carolina and northeastern south carolina. in addition to all of that, there's also a tornad

we've got hurricane force winds that can stretch out 70 miles so we've seen some of the hurricane forceds stretching on to the coast throughout the afternoon and a tropical storm force winds. think about this h.. 170 miles, that's staggering. you can be pretty far away from the actual center and receive a lot of the rain. think about it. with the winds and rain and the system sitting so long, you start saturating the ground. you start knocking over trees and that'sing if going to caus prolonged power outages to many people. >> for people deciding whether or not to evacuate, is it too late now? >> i think at this point, you know, you start looking back at the storm surge values. these are definitely life-threatening. it's a matter of you -- we had to be done yesterday, and i think at this point, you know, taking cover definitely, but you've got to be safe out there. watch out for the water, and i want to talk about this statistic because it's important. 90% of the fatalities and tropical systems it comes from the water. half of those are storm surge and another 25% is the inland rain. th

according to the national hurricane center, ten people were killed directly by the hurricane.rectly by the hurricane in the u.s. alone. however, 82 more are classified as indirect deaths that happened afterward. can you explain for people who are watching and listening why a storm surge and other factors often kill more people after the storm strikes? >> yes, we see that in every hurricane. we have -- oftentimes we have very few fatalities during the storm. but afterwards, people are tired, they've been up late and they want to get out there, work in yards, get on the roofs. people get injured are chain saw, people electrocuted, people fall off the roofs. it's just not being careful. if you decide to shelter in place, stay there. if you've evacuated, stay out until you're asked to come back or told to come back in. but we see it every storm, you're actually right on target with that one. >> david, as you probably are aware, president trump a few hours ago called into question the death toll as a result of hurricane maria which followed irma. i want to read his two quotes. 3,00

i'm surviving hurricane florence. they have about 700 emergency officials stationed around craven county and divers from indiana and the national guard ready to act after the storm. if something happens during the storm you're on your own though. >> diane gag engineer, thanks so much. stay safe yourself. i want to bring in ed lavandera where hurricane florence has just hit in morehead. >> reporter: we're in the middle of the bands where the winds have intensified. not a lot of rain at the moment. that will change in a second and the winds have intensified where we're starting to see the rather light pieces of structure begin to come off. this flew over our location and landed here on this pier just a short while ago. you can see the whitecaps out in the sound. out in the distance that's the barrier island, atlantic beach. all of that has been -- access to that has all been shut down. the bridges are impassable here at this point. local authorities have really shut that down because the winds have now reached a point w

a hurricane that florence is drawing the closest comparisons to is hugo, hurricane hugo, which hit the carolinas in september 1989 with high winds and a massive storm surge, if you're old enough to remember that, you definitely remember that. >> good evening. hurricane hugo is a monster tonight. today it grew rapidly from a category 2 to a category 4 hurricane. it now has winds of 135 miles an hour. that's very dangerous, especially since it is expected to bring very high seas, a storm surge. this is the latest satellite photo, and as you can see, hugo is rapidly approaching landfall. the first winds and rain from hugo have already arrived. this is the scene tonight in charleston. the historic city hard by the sea is hunkered down, getting ready for the hugo invasion. the barrier islands of south carolina were no barrier to hurricane hugo. these tiny spits of land are exposed to the ocean and were the first hit by the storm. hugo came ashore here at high tide with 130-mile-per-hour winds and slammed a wall of water 20 feet high across the beach and on to beachfront property. an entire

intrend hurricane hurnts.news now." antacids here... to stash here... or, here. kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. >>> live pictures there of times >>> live pictures there of times square. the wet streets right now, but it's nothing compared to what is heading toward the carolina coast because we see it right here on this satellite imagery as hurricane florence is closing in on the coast, the government hurricane hunters have taken to the skies. they're flying into that storm right now. >> abc's david muir spoke with one of the crew members on board that plane. >> jack, you and i have talked before during these hurricanes. i know this is the final flight of the day. what are you seeing right now? >> david, we are flying north of the hurricane florence right now. our job today is to get any kind of clues about where this storm is going, the fine tuning just before landfall. one alarming thing is that i don't see a lot disrupting it. >> i know you talked about lo

you can see right here,ight where the hurricane will come into hurricane and me andier around the area. upor us, right now possiblyn a inch and a half. this number could still change. we have to watch but wilmington could see upwards of 25 inches of rain. how much rain is that? one inch of rain is eal to 27 gallons in one acre of land. he sow with that being said, the square mileage of swimming about 41 square miles. that means 15 billion gallons of rain with the 25 inches, they are forecast to get. that could fill 22,000 olympic sized pools. that's what we're talking about. that's why youear people comparing to it harvey. that hurrican just adumping so rain. and we're seeing it in our area. >>in we're sthe showers coming through. yesterday they were moving south to north. we'll show you what we're looking at. if i put this into motion over the lasturwo notice which way it's going from east to west. it is directly related and the flow aund florence, and the high pressure, shower activity continuing. some of those areas seeing the heaviest down pours. few and far between around frederic

>> well, we've had a lot of hurricanes in the carolinas that have been storm surge hurricanes.d was hurricane hazel back in 1954 which hit just to the west of cape fear and really decimated oak island and ocean island and some of those areas down there. fran in '86 hit just about the same area where this storm may make landfall. and it had about 10 or 12 feet of storm surge again, did a number on the ocean side and the dunes and the beaches. so we have had storm surge storms. we've also has major rainfall storms that have been more inland. floyd, for example, in the late '90s and matthew just two years ago dumped a lot of rain in the piedmont area in the uplands, then came down and when it reached the coastal plain, the rivers aren't very deep there. so it just spilled over its banks and flooded tremendous areas in the greenville and kingston and lumberton areas. this -- but those are separate. the surge at the coast and that rainfall further inland, this slow-moving very wet storm is going to dump both rainfall and storm surge in the same areas at the same time. and so that wi

when they're overwhelmed and had what we're seeing in hurricane florence is it's similar to hurricanervey. and the stalling affects. 911 could be overwhelmed. this allows them to tap into civilian resources. and facility rescue in an efficient way. >> are people down loading this? are they aware of the app? >> yes. so far we have 950 rescuers signed up. online. that means we're gps tracking them and they have a boat or truck. and can rescue people. after florence. we have a couple hundred dispatchers who will help connect the two together. and we're getting hit about 1,000 people an hour on the web site. >> i thought it was interesting some of these are after the fact you have people who maybe evacuated themselves but worried about pets. pet rescue. >> yeah. it is sort of difficult to get 30 cows off of a field off the coast of north carolina. that's where the app came into play the last couple days. people said i need to move my horse or cow. they place a pin into the app and it connects somebody with a trailer. who can help pull them. for free most of the time. >> when you have the

into a hurricane. tell me what landfall looks like and why it is or isn't relevant for this hurricane? >> i'm so glad you made that point. let's talk about it. it really isn't necessarily about that landfall point. look at this. we have hurricane warnings well outside the cone, well away from where the landfall is, and we talked about that storm surge. lets really illustrate that. if you have landfall godown in this region, that's only part of the story. look where the surge is. you're well away from that landfall, far away, even in the northern portions of north carolina where you can see some of this storm surge. really, we really need to be careful paying attention to where that center is. the hurricane force winds 70 miles away, 170 miles of tropical storm force winds over saturated soil. you'll have a lot of trees down, power outages. i really want to paint the picture of the scope of the size of this system. that's the way we need to think about it, not necessarily where it makes landfall. >> rep