joining me on the phone is lieutenant commander nicolas morgan. he's a flight director for the national oceanic and atmospheric administration hurricane hunters. he just flew over hurricane florence. commander, can you hear me? >> i sure can. thank you for having me on. i'm aboard the -- noaa's gulf stream g-4 jet which is our high altitude platform that goes around and over the storm and samples the environment to track the steering winds and to help narrow down the track. >> absolutely, commander. so what is the very latest that you can tell us? what did you see? >> well, we've been working all up and down the eastern seaboard today and somewhat east of the storm helping forecast -- helping the forecasters to figure out how quickly the system is going to move ashore. compared to our last several flights, we're definitely seeing the storm expand in size and even despite the weakening of winds we expect a significant surge and heavy rains inland. >> as you mentioned, the storm has gotten bigger in size but also know that it's strengthening slightl