abc's victor oquendo can tell you that for sure because he's in the thick of it in jacksonville, north carolina. sure has not weakened in his shot. victor. >> reporter: not at all, kendis. it's been a busy morning and very long night here. these winds are only getting stronger. this rain has just been relentless. you kind of see it just washing right across the shot. it's whipping me right in the face. the reported wind gust here at last check right around 76 miles per hour. and it's only getting worse. here in jacksonville we are about 20 miles away from the coast. but here there are reports of major structural damage to homes and businesses, you guys saw what happens at that local high school here. just a few hours ago we were down near the new river near the mouth of it close to the shore. and that leads all the way up through the city of jacksonville, that is going to be basically a one-two punch for these people here. we're going to get the initial hit from the storm and then the major concern is obviously that storm surge. that's another huge wind gust comes through here in jacks

>> all right, victor oquendo for us tonight. victor, thank you. ginger zee has been tracking gordon all day. take us through the tram of this storm and the timing and your biggest concern tonight. >> reporter: my biggest concern is rain with this system, tom. and we see the center of tropical storm gordon just west of the peninsula of florida. the heaviest rain falling from naples to ft. myers. you could see up to eight inches. this is going to race to the west-northwest and move through the gulch, intensifying. could become a category 1 hurricane before it makes landfall. late tuesday night, more likely early wednesday morning. the heaviest of the rain going to fall into between gulf port and bill loxi, mobile. winds will gust above 75 miles per hour. by the time we watch wednesday night, it will have already made its way well inland and the moisture will mix and already inundate the midwest that's been hit so hard. we'll be talking about this through the midweek and beyond. tom? >> ginger, thank you so much. >>> and it isn't just the gulf coast

let's check this live tonight with abc's victor oquendo. victor? >> reporter: david, we're bracing for potentially catastrophic storm surge, possibly up to 11 feet. we're near the mouth of the new river, it runs from the coast all the way up through jacksonville. you can see these waves, they're crashing right up ore this dock. and a lot of this water will be going inland and it there flood large parts of the city. emergency officials tell me they are expecting an unprecedented amount of rain, possibly up to three feet and they say if you live in this area and you haven't evacuated, that window has closed. david? >> unfortunately it has. victor oquendo tonight, thank you. as we know, landfall expected right here in wilmington or just north of here first thing in the morning. we have the new track for you in a moment. but first tonight, my interview with the police chief right here in wilmington, his biggest concern now with this massive storm sitting right off this coast. and what we've seen already, the destruction on the barrier islands. tonight,

>> victor oquendo from florida. victor, thank you. >>> and next this evening, the flooding emergency in the carolinas growing worse tonight, a week now after hurricane florence slammed ashore. rivers still rising in the carolinas and in virginia. road conditions changing so rapidly, officials are now warning drivers not to rely on their gps, saying it could direct them right into a flood. the death toll still rising. tonight, now at 41. and homeowners are now faced with extensive repairs. in north carolina alone, just 3% of property owners there have federal flood insurance. >>> and now the tornado watch in the midwest at this hour. a possible twister destroying this barn in ohio. severe storms expected from ohio to vermont by tomorrow. this is moving across the country and quickly. let's get right to meteorologist rob marciano, tracking it all for us live tonight. hey, rob. >> reporter: hi, david. it is a strong, fast-moving front. that is the trigger of those storms that will sweep through here tomorrow night. but

let's get right to victor oquendo, in sneads ferry, north carolina, 40 miles from where we're standing right here on the new river, where there's a lot of concern. victor, what are you seeing? >> reporter: david, we're bracing for potentially catastrophic storm surge here. possibly up to 11 feet. these bands are just getting stronger, as you can probably tell. the rains and the winds really picking up out here. we're near the mouth of the new river. it runs from the coast all the way up through the city of jacksonville. these waves, they're just crashing right over this dock and a lot of this water is going to get pushed inland. and it's going to create a lot of flooding. we've spoken with emergency officials, they are prepared for an unprecedented amount of rain, right around three feet, and they say that if you live in this area, and you have not evacuated, the window for that has closed. david? >> all right, victor oquendo, stay safe. you and the team as we're on the air in the west tonight. >>> north carolina's barrier islands are particularly exposed to these winds. the outer band

abc's victor oquendo is there tonight. >> reporter: tonight, the ominous first bands of rain slamming into the gulf. gordon now closing in. winds of 70 miles per hour, as much as a foot of rain threatening millions in the hours ahead. states of emergency now stretching from louisiana to alabama. >> it is time to take this as a serious storm and be prepared to >> reporter: the space station capturing gordon as it gained strength. potentially catastrophic inland flooding feared. and along the coast -- >> that storm surge warning in effect. harrison county up to five feet of water above dry ground. >> reporter: the late-dropping storm gaining so much strength in the last 48 hours, forcing residents to scramble. what's the general mood around here as this thing approaches? >> pretty much, honestly, i think community. we all kind of jumped in and helped each other. >> i'm confident we've got the pumps and the power we need to get through this. >> all right, so, let's get to victor, with us from biloxi, mississippi, tonight. the bulls eye for gordon in the coming hours. and officials are pr

victor oquendo, abc news, miami. >> investigators say that that man was unarmed, wasn't carrying any explosives and no links to terror groups have been discovered. >> which makes the motive a little more confusing. >>> all right. when we come back, colten gets a head start on season 22 of "the bachelor." >>> danny devito reveals one of the grossest things he has ever done. it is gross. "the skinny" is next. elor." >>> danny deveto reveals one of the grossest things he has ever done. it is gross. "the skinny" is next. i use heavy duty swiffer sweeper and dusters. for hard-to-reach places, duster makes it easy to clean. it captures dust in one swipe. ha! gotcha! and (new) sweeper heavy duty cloths lock away a twice as much dirt and dust. it gets stuff deep in the grooves other tools can miss. you know what? my place is a lot cleaner now. stop cleaning. start swiffering. ♪ skinny ♪ skinny ♪ the skinny, the skinny >>> time now for "the skinny," starting with colton's big "bachelor" preview. >> we all know him. he's been outspoken about his virginity and he famously broke up with tia bare

victor oquendo has more. victor, good morning. >> good morning, whit and adrienne. it has not stopped raining here in jacksonville. these floodwaters continue to rise. look behind me. you can see the water almost reaching the sign on that billboard and just beyond that, that box truck is stuck. the water almost reaching the windows there. florence continues devastating this area. >> reporter: this morning relentless rain across jacksonville, north carolina. florence flooding the city. the town of richland inundated. we spotted this couple wading in neck deep water. >> i was raised around this area. this is the first i've seen it this bad. >> i was having to swim there for a little bit. >> reporter: down the road good samaritans dropping their boats into flood waters searching for people trapped inside their homes. the catastrophic flooding dangerous for rescuers too. our station wtdv there when this humvee got stuck with marine and first responders on board. locals giving them a much needed hand. mike gallagher and his wife deciding to ride out the storm. >> we woul

abc's victor oquendo is there right now. good morning, victor. >> reporter: good morning, michael. we are getting hammered by hurricane florence right now here in jacksonville. the rain has just been relentless all night long and now these winds are getting even stronger. right around 80 miles per hour. we've checked in with emergency officials. they tell us that the roads are flooded. they're dealing with a lot of downed power lines and there is major structural damage in this area. they had to rescue some 70 people that were stuck inside of a hotel. some of those guests reported basketball size holes in some of their rooms. they had to get everybody out of there. thankfully nobody hurt. here in jacksonville we're about 20 miles inland from the coast. the major concern here is flooding but down there, storm surge. that's their big worry. reports already topping six feet and given where the eyewall is right now we could be looking at weather like this for many, many hours to come. michael. >> all right, thank you, victor. like you said thankfully no one was hurt. >> wilmington is b

here's victor oquendo. >> reporter: the student pilot charged after allegedly trying to steal a airplane, appearing before a judge t anti-suicide smock, with hands and feet shackled. >> do you work? >> no, i'm a student. >> reporter: fbi agents investigating the case say 22-year-old nishal sankat was allegedly trying to steal this american airlines plane, and the results could have been disastrous. >> he advised us that he intended to harm himself and in that process had no regard for the potentiality of harming others in the process. >> reporter: authorities say sankat, who has a commercial pilot's license, left his car running outside the orlando-melbourne international airport around 1:30 a.m. thursday. jumped a barbed wire fence and made his way onto the empty airbus 321, in for service. that's where he encountered this maintenance worker. >> i knew right away. i mean, we are trained. no badge -- right off the bat. looked down, no shoe on that foot. this isn't right. >> reporter: shayne graves said he had thoughts of 9/11 when he stopped sankat from entering the cockpit. >> i said, "

that's according to abc's victor oquendo. >> this place has just about everything they could need. they've got a medical station here and they've turned this gymnasium -- that's where they have lined up a ton of cots for people to get rest and sleep. duke energy says that some 3 million customers in both north and south carolina will likely lose power during hurricane florence so the people have come here and to the many shelters that have opened up in the area. >> reporter: some people are heading south to georgia where the atlanta motor speedway has opened its grounds for evacuees. >> i see people on the internet just said check there, check here. so, we just make phone calls, you know, and then we got this place. i have denzel, the chocolate lab. i have zachary, the dachshund and then nelly, the sassy bird. >> sassy nelly there on standby. >> yeah, and anheuser-busch is doing their part to help throughout this storm. they've stopped making beer at its brewery in georgia, and it's now preparing cans of drinking water for hurricane victims. >> the brewery is making 300,000 cans of

and we begin our coverage this half hour with abc's victor oquendo, who is in jacksonville, north carolina, where victor, the winds are picking up? >> reporter: the winds are picking up and they've been relentless all night long, stephanie. i'm kind of protected by this wall. if i take a few steps out, you'll be able to tell, even stronger out here and the rains have not stopped all night. our hotel lost power early on. storm surge continues to be the main concern here in jacksonville. could be looking at somewhere in the ballpark of about 11 feet, which would just be devastating. inland flooding, of course, a major worry as well. we've checked in with the emergency management officials here. they say there are reports of major structural damage to buildings, to homes, to businesses. we've heard of a local high school that has been flooded. jacksonville, about 20 miles inlanded from coast, we were down there a few hours ago. and we saw hurricane florence making its approach. we were down there near the mouth of the new river which runs from the coast up here through the city of jacksonvill

grandparents will yates and donna brown tell victor oquendo beds are filling up fast. how are you guys feeling now that yooir here in the shelter? >> well, we need one more bed. there are five of us, there are four beds, so, we're going to pray. we're going to pray. and if not -- >> i can stay in the car. >> and gio is with us tonight from kitty hawk, north carolina. gio, officials will be closing the bridge so no one can get from the mainland back out to the outer banks. and i understand so many families want to check on their property, but they're going to call things off starting tomorrow. >> reporter: that's right, david. that's going to happen at 8:30 tomorrow morning. if you are on this island, you can get out whenever you want. you just can't get back in. that's because officials say it's just too dangerous. david? >> gio benitez with us tonight, as well. thank you. >>> and president trump joining forces with governors and officials on the ground here, warning people in the storm zone to be prepared and to be safe. and reassuring them that the government is read

victor oquendo is there. >> reporter: tonight, water as far as the eye can see in jacksonville, north carolina. an estimated 30 inches of rain flooding the city, turning neighborhoods like this one into rivers. the water swallowing cars, climbing up to the windows of this house. we spotted this couple wading up to their necks in water. >> it was up to my neck for me. >> reporter: city officials telling abc news they rescued more than 200 people, but that their work is far from over. >> if you are refusing to leave during this mandatory evacuation, you need to do things like notify your legal next of kin because the loss of life is very, very possible. >> reporter: we headed out with a swift water rescue team through some of the hardest hit areas. the team just got a call of a person stranded on top of their car. stuck in some flood water. we're heading there right now to check it out. it doesn't look like anyone was inside. or on top of this car. but how many calls like this are you getting? >> we're having a significant amount of calls for vehicles taking on water. we try to get out

abc's victor oquendo from the storm zone tonight. >> reporter: tonight, gordon deadly and marching inland, bringing heavy rain and dangerous flash flooding. in alabama, a direct hit to dauphin island, making official landfall in mississippi as a tropical storm at 10:15 p.m. tuesday. >> seriously, we have to get out of here. >> reporter: up to five feet of storm surge. ferocious winds ripping buildings apart and hurling debr debris. gordan's destruction visible at daybreak. tens of thousands losing power in the region. we're coming across a lot of downed trees here in pensacola. just take a look at the size of this one, now blocking the street. one tree crashing down into a family's home here. >> i ran over there to see if i could help them and they said that their baby was trapped under there and he was crying. >> reporter: tragically, that child did not survive. david, right now tropical storm gordon is pulling in these strong bands of rain from the gulf of mexico. it damaged and shut down this pier along pensacola beach. while it has moved further inland, we're still looking and more ra

. >> and, sam, we heard from victor oquendo there talking about how a lot of folks that he's spoken with compare it to past hurricanes. we know you don't like to compare -- >> that's all right. >> they're all different but the river flooding in this case, it could be worse than hurricane floyd and people were speaking with folks in town for that storm, everything was fine, but this could be much worse. >> well, we're already seeing in that new bern area in particular in that one area we've seen so much flooding in overnight if people had been with us all night we have been right on top of that as it was breaking. and we expect the crest of that to come tuesday, higher than the 1999 crest of floyd so that's for sure in that area. i wouldn't be surprised to see now that we still have that storm and the rain bands will move into other areas, we just may not have gotten the reports from those areas. i'm sure that other towns, it's not just new bern that is going through it right now. other areas are, new bern has been well staffed and been on twitter and been sending out images so we know wh

victor oquendo, abc news, jacksonville, north carolina. >> victor, thank you very much for that. we are getting reports right now of a hotel in jacksonville, north carolina, that's been evacuated. they say the building has been compromised. >> right where victor is, nearby, about 70 occupants have been evacuated as hurricane-force winds threatened the structure and the integrity of the building. the good news i guess is that there are plenty of shelters available. the bad news is getting to those shelters will be a struggle for many people. you saw that live picture of the rain really coming down in wilmington. this is from jacksonville. some of the earlier images that we were getting. those are two areas that are getting hit hard right now by some of the strong winds and rain that's in the eyewall. >> about 70 people were evacuated from that hotel including children a, an infant pets. >> we have like -- we've heard of new bern. you can really see where the storm is moving, where the impact is. i think by some of the damage reports we're hearing and some of the rescues that we're

victor oquendo has more from close to where gordon made landfall. >> reporter: the winds are really startingto feel the effects of tropical storm gordon. just take a look. the waves crashing right over the seawall here. but the scenes are much worse elsewhere along the gulf coast. just take a look at what we've seen in alabama or in pensacola in florida. tropical storm gordon just hammering the region with very strong winds and a whole lot of rain. this storm developed quickly in the gulf and then once it hit land, it slowed down. still the communities along the gulf coast left scrambling to get their last-minute supplies together. what's the general mood right now as this thing approaches? >> pretty much community. we all kind of jumped in and helped each other. >> when severe weather arrives, be ready to shelter at home and in place. please stay off the roads during heavy rain and high winds, and never drive through flooded areas. >> reporter: biloxi basically shutting down in preparation for tropical storm gordon. the famed casinos closed tuesday night. and as for public schools, on wedne

and abc's victor oquendo has more from miami. ng, victor. >> reporter: good morning, michael. that student pilot is in custody this morning as police investigate this disturbing breach of security at the orlando melbourne international airport. it was around 1:30 a.m. thursday that authorities say 22-year-old nishal sankat left his car running outside of the airport. he jumped a barbed wire fence and boarded this empty american airlines airbus 321 jet which normally holds nearly 200 passengers. sankat was stopped by two technicians who happened to be on board. they tackled him, but he managed to take off running on the tarmac before police arrested him a minute later. now he's facing several charges including criminal trespassing and attempting to steal on airplane. the joint terrorism task force and the fbi are among the agencies investigating, trying to determine a motive, michael. >> thank you so much, victor. george. >>> coming up, thectgetting par convicted for attempted murder. his ex-girlfriend outraged. getting parole afte